The Wild Hunt
by Battlefield Angel
Summary: Kate Rhys isn't your average damsel in distress... in either the Muggle or the wizarding world... in fact, for some reason she's usually the cause of it... Note the usual disclaimers about ownership J.K. Rowling owns all characters save Kate, Gwen, Orion
1. The Lark From her Light Wing

I decided to change chapter one, for the simple fact that few people can read the Welsh. I shall now make the necessary obsequities to J.K. Rowling, for unlike everyone else most of these characters are hers, though Kate, Gwen, Lorenzo and, the most important character, Orion (just ask him) are mine…  
  
Thanks to all reviewers.  
  
K.S.  
  
"We were born into a time when legends hold sway, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance . Children still, two live hold the evil in check – the boy who lived and the girl who was born."  
  
Halloween night  
  
The young woman was straining on the bed, drenched in sweat. The nurse held the girl's hand, encouraging her.  
  
"Now there, my dear. Your baby is born. Oh what a beautiful little girl you have! See Gwen, here is your daughter," Madam Pomfrey gently placed the bundled baby next to Gwendoyln Rhys, then motioined for the man with the silver beard to enter the room.  
  
"There you have it, Professor. She won't tell me anything. Not even who the child's father is. And," Madam Pomfrey continued in an even lower voice, "She was muttering something about Lily and James Potter. They are quite safe, quite hidden, aren't they? Their little boy too?"She asked worried. Albus Dumbledore did not have a chance to reply. Gwen, the baby at her side, began to speak, in harsh tones quite unlike her clear, rather lilting voice.  
  
"Tonight, it happens. As the girl is brought into this world, the Dark Lord will attempt to destroy the boy-child. The mother, the father, the home-hearth, all are decimated, and the child lies in the ruins. HE LIVES! And he will live. They will face great perils, both together and apart, these two children. The boy has defeated the Dark Lord; he shall do so again. The girl will face yet another Lord of Evil, and she as well will triumph. For he has dared to live, and she has dared to be born. They shall be united under the same banner, each wielding one of the lost swords. And the world shall be given a new sort of hope. The High King shall return!"  
  
"She's in a fey trance. We'd best send someone to the Potters. Hagrid, I think. We must hurry. Gwen, Gwen, can you hear me?" Dumbledore sat on the edge of the bed, and gently pushed sodden blonde hair from her forehead.  
  
"Professor?" Gwen opened her cat-like eyes and looked about for a moment.  
  
"Who is this little one's father, Gwen? Where is he, he deserves to know."  
  
"I can't tell you, for I do not know for sure myself. It's either Sirius or Severus. I've been so frightened, Professor Dumbledore. Don't tell, either one of them. They hate each other so. And… And I love them both. She won't understand," Gwen said softly, a hesitant finger brushing the baby's dark hair, "So tiny, so pure. Katherine. That's her name. Katherine Ariana Rhys. A proud name, fitting for a descendent of enchantresses, warriors, and kings. Give her to Anwen. Give my baby to my twin. She can't have children and I know that she and Patrick will love my little girl. I can just be Aunt Gwen. When my Katherine, my Kate, is old enough, I'll tell her. But the past months have been a nightmare, Professor. Lily and James and their little boy in danger; Sirius in hiding, and Severus… I'm glad he was able to get me here to Hogwarts without causing undue suspicion. He never knew, I didn't tell him, or Sirius, that I was going to have a baby."  
  
Dumbledore took the baby in his arms. The child's eyes were not the mild sky-blue of a normal infant's, but a dark stormy blue, eerie golden rings surrounding the pupils. Her hair was thick and dark, with a slightly silver cast to it.  
  
"Katherine Ariana. The Child Silverhair, I ought to have guessed it," he crooned to the child, who wasn't red-faced, like most new babies, but pearly white, proclaiming her half-fey blood, " You've great things in store for you But I promise you, little one, I shall discover your father for you, or help you when you must go on that quest." His grave faced lightened as the child tugged at his beard, and looked at him as though she knew exactly what he had said, with an unflinching gaze.  
  
"Oh yes, you're a fey child, and willfull as a cat already, I see. You'll be a force to be reckoned with when next you see me, little one."  
  
  
  
Nine years later  
  
The little girl stood next to Gwen throughout the whole funeral ceremony. Long dark hair braided into a plait only served to accentuate the tragic paleness of the little face. But there were no tears. None of the wizards and witches who came to the funeral of Anwen Rhys ever saw the child cry. And Gwen could not bear to part with her. Dumbledore took Gwen's hand and guided her to a seat in the front of the tent in the cemetery at Gettysburg. Professor McGonagall sat next to the other woman, cradling her head when she finally began to weep. Severus Snape looked at the child, who gazed up at him with an uncanny, searching look. She would not sit.  
  
"It's my fault, you know," she said solemnly.  
  
" A thing like this is never anyone's fault, child," he replied just as gravely. Something told him that to speak to this girl as one generally would to a small child would be making a terrible mistake, "Come, I'll take you to your aunt. They're getting ready to give the last benediction." He reached for her hand, but she snatched it away.  
  
" I'm not going to go. I don't want to see them put Mama in the ground forever. I won't! I won't!" She turned and fled. Snape followed, but he was not quick enough to catch the spritely child.  
  
"Damn!" he said under his breath, and went to Albus Dumbledore.  
  
"The child has run off. Said she won't watch them put her mother into the ground. We have to go find her," he said in low tones. Gwen Rhys began to weep again, panicked about Katherine's disappearance now of all times. When she calmed herself, she told the ministering wizard to carry on, as Snape, Dumbledore, and McGonagall went to search for the child.  
  
"Where would she go?" Professor Minerva McGonagall asked.  
  
" The battlefield," Dumbledore said with certainty, " She is a Rhys, above anything. She will go to a place where she feels safe."  
  
"Albus, why would such a little girl feel safe on a battlefield of all places?"  
  
"Gwen told me that is her favorite place in the world."  
  
"That battlefield is enormous, Headmaster," Snape said, "How shall we find her?"  
  
"We'll split up and look, Severus. We must find the child unharmed. Minerva, you shall take the area known as Pickett's Charge. I shall search the two hills. Severus, you take the valley with the woods and the rocks. Devil's Den, the rocks are called. Send up a signal with your wands if you find the child. Hurry now."  
  
For nearly an hour did they search, and found nothing. Then, a sound caught Snape's attention. It was a clear, pretty voice: a child singing a song. Snape listened to it, and nodded his head. It was a song he knew well. Llwyn Onn, The Ash Grove. The child sang of rowan trees in her grief.  
  
The ash grove, how graceful, how plainly 'tis speaking,  
  
The harp wind through it playing has language for me.  
  
Whenever the light through its branches is breaking  
  
A host of kind faces is gazing on me.  
  
The friends of my childhood again are before me,  
  
Each step wakes a memory as freely I roam.  
  
With soft whispers laden its leaves rustle o'er me,  
  
The ash grove, the ash grove again [alone] is my home.  
  
My laughter is over, my step loses lightness,  
  
Old countryside measures steal soft on my ear;  
  
I only remember the past and its brightness,  
  
The dear ones I mourn [long] for again gather here.  
  
From out of the shadows their loving looks greet me  
  
And wistfully searching the leafy green dome,  
  
I find other faces fond bending to greet me,  
  
The ash grove, the ash grove alone is my home.  
  
My lips smile no more, my heart loses its lightness  
  
No dream of my future my spirit can cheer;  
  
I only can brood on the past and its brightness,  
  
The dead I have mourned are again living here.  
  
From ev'ry dark nook they press forward to meet me;  
  
I lift up my eyes to the broad leafy dome,  
  
And others are there looking downward to greet me;  
  
The ash grove, the ash grove alone is my home.  
  
  
  
He found her in the great maze of boulders Dumbledore had called Devil's Den. Katherine sat on a rock, a large yellow and white cat sitting on her lap. He watched her for a moment, not betraying his presence. It was the cat who noticed him first. It saw him quite plainly and gave a very loud mew. The girl stood up and saw him.  
  
"It's all right. Are you ready to come back yet? Everything is over, but your aunt is very worried about you. I see you have Leonidas. We're old friends, that cat and I."  
  
A hesitant smile played over the white features, "Leonidas isn't the only one here. The ghosts are here, listening. They like it when they can hear the old tunes, ones that they heard in life. The Major picked 'The Ash Grove.' General Armistead prefers 'Kathleen Mavourneen'," she looked away, towards the sunset, "Is it really all over?"  
  
"Yes, it is. And your aunt Gwen will be missing her kitty as well as her little girl. Shall I carry you back, Katherine?"  
  
"Call me Kate. Not Katie, but Kate. And I think I shall allow you to carry me back… my feet are tired and these shoes make them hurt."  
  
Snape gathered the little girl in his arms, letting the cat walk behind them. He sent up the signal and headed towards the farmhouse which was the old Rhys homestead. Kate fell asleep very soon as he walked on. Dumbledore and McGonagall soon met up with them. Leonidas, tired of walking himself, allowed Minerva McGonagall to pick him up and carry him.  
  
"Where on earth did you find her, Severus?" McGonagall asked.  
  
"She was sitting on a rock, the cat in her lap, and she was singing, like a little lark. She looks so like Gwen now, could be a small Gwen, save for the eyes and the hair."  
  
"That she does, Severus," Dumbledore said, " Did you see any of the ghosts? I've met up with a few on the hill, including Major Rhys, the child's forefather, Bran's father. Remarkable child. He also told me why she ran away. I think that we ought to put a memory charm of this day on her. We shouldn't take away the memory of her mother's death, or of her own role in it, but let's remove this day." Snape handed the child to Dumbledore, who touched the shining head with his wand and uttered a few words. When they got to the farmhouse, Gwen came running to meet them.  
  
"Alive and unhurt! Oh my precious, precious girl!"  
  
"She won't remember any of this day Gwen, which will be easier on her." Dumbledore said. Gwen nodded and, taking the child, bore her to an upper room in the house. She stayed up there for a few minutes and came downstairs with rather red eyes.  
  
"Would anyone like some coffee or tea? I'm making my Kate-Kat some hot chocolate, she's woken up and is a tad cold."  
  
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, " I would not say 'no' to some of Kate's hot chocolate." 


	2. Whys and Wherefores

Almost seven years later  
  
Kate dropped her jacket on the kitchen table, ran her fingers through her long dark hair, and leafed through the day's mail. She got the usual list of college 'visit us' letters that she'd been getting since 8th grade, till she got to one made of thick cream-colored paper. It's writing was bright green, and she looked for the post mark. There wasn't one, but there was a wax seal on the back, bearing a coat of arms.  
  
"Hmm. Hey, Orion, go and get Aunt Gwen. She should be out in the garden," she told her cat, who ambled out the back door. Kate laughed and shook her head. She used the old silver letter-opener to slash the top of the envelope, and pulled a letter from the top.  
  
"More green ink, somebody must have gotten happy with the metallic gel pens. Ok, let's see what you say:  
  
"Dear Miss Rhys, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the exchange program at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will be considered the representative of the American High Council of Sorcery while at Hogwarts. The school term begins September 1st . Being as you are coming from over the Atlantic, your guardian will be allowed to escort you to the school in order to settle in. Accompanied is a list of school supplies, you may purchase them either in your own country or in London.  
  
Professor Minerva McGonagall  
  
Deputy Headmistress  
  
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry  
  
"Weird, Aunt Gwen never said anything about this," Kate mused, and tapped her foot. That darned cat! Could he do nothing she asked him? Selfish rat-catcher! Just then her aunt walked in, followed by the sauntering black cat. Kate gave him an evil look after she had handed the letter to Gwen.  
  
"Ah, the acceptance letter from Hogwarts. I must say, that after the debacle in the Forest of Illusion, I wondered if you would get in."  
  
Kate sat with a huff onto a chair, Orion curling himself over her shoulder, " You knew about this! And didn't tell me? That was one of the reasons there was a debacle in the Forest, you didn't give me the whole story!" She stood up and paced about the kitchen.  
  
Gwen sat down, looking at the letter, "It's a great honor, Kate. I went to Hogwarts, as did your mother. Every generation of Rhys women have been there. Come now, my Kate-Kat, it's a wonderful school and you'll meet others like yourself. Even Harry Potter is there. I was the maid of honor at his parents wedding. That all seems so long ago. Before Voldemort ruined everything."  
  
"So you've told me a hundred, if not a thousand times. Oh, don't be sad, auntie!" Kate put her arms about her aunt who looked as though a terrible burden lay on her shoulders, " Why can't I stay here with you? From what I've heard, Lorenzo is still fuming about me! What if he makes trouble? And there isn't a professor alive who can teach me better than you can! I don't want idiots who spoon-feed their students amateurish potions and useless defenses against evil! I've faced one of the most ancient and powerful dark forces to exist, for crying out loud!"  
  
"Katherine," Gwen's voice had steel in it suddenly. It was only rarely that Gwen used Kate's full name, and when she did, the girl knew she had to listen, "You're being terribly narrow-minded about all this. It will be a learning experience. And shouldn't you like it when you prove a professor wrong? You're so powerful, my Kate, but you need to learn patience and restraint. A year or so at Hogwarts, with rules and regulations would be of great value to you. Now, what do you say?"  
  
Kate looked at her aunt, knowing that she kind of wanted to give in. The idea of proving a pompous professor wrong was too great a lure. That and the notion of having friends who weren't animals or who had been dead for a hundred and forty years.  
  
"Will you at least come with me?" She murmured.  
  
  
  
  
  
Kate finished loading the car with all the things she needed for school. Orion was in a small travelling cage in between the driver's and passenger's seats. He was not happy about it, but thankfully he did not try to remedy the situation. As Kate got into the car, she looked out at the places she loved so well. They left from Cannon Hill, one of the only still privately owned parts of the battlefield.  
  
As she looked back towards the morning mist rising from the hills, Kate felt a terrible stab of homesickness, " Auntie, can we drive around the battlefield one last time?"  
  
"We'll be late," Gwen protested.  
  
"Please?" Kate's voice trembled.  
  
"OK, but you can only get out once."  
  
"Thank you!" Kate leaned over an hugged her aunt. They stopped at her favorite place on the battlefield, Devil's Den, the maze of boulders facing the two Round Tops. Kate raised her voice in song and the ghosts came to her. Each wished her luck, for they all loved the fey child, these spirits of the Blue and Gray. She almost cried when she saw her ancestor, who had defied both wizard and fey law when he went to fight for the Union. He had died at Gettysburg and usually haunted the garden at Cannon Hill.  
  
"You'll do the Rhys name proud over there at Hogwarts. And don't get into any trouble you can't get yourself out of."  
  
"Thank you, Major. I shall try." She put her hand, palm outward, as Major Rhys did the same. It was an old thing, this gesture of greeting and of parting. She turned and got back into the car. She watched the assembled ghosts fade away with the mist as the car drew her further and further away from her hometown and everything familiar to her.  
  
In the offices of the High Council in Washington, they were given the portkey which would take them to their inn in London. Everything save the cat, whose basket was being held by Kate, had been sent ahead.  
  
Kate felt an odd jar in her stomach, as though she were on a roller coaster, and her surroundings changed. They were in a dim room. She barely had time to look about when the cat, still unhappily imprisoned, gave a howl of misery. Kate stooped to let him out and laughed at his wounded expression.  
  
"Yes, I know, I am a mean, cruel girl who does not deserve you, oh Prince of the Western Gates!" The cat, mollified by one of the flattering appellations he loved best, settled himself in her lap. Kate too soon dozed as Gwen put things away.  
  
The next day, they went to get her school supplies (they had figured it would be easier to get them in London rather than in Washington). Kate found that she liked Diagon Alley. There just were so many interesting sights and sounds.  
  
At the robe shop, Kate was infuriated, " Why do I have to wear skirts? And these robes, they're so bunchy!"  
  
"It's uniform, my dear. All the girls at Hogwarts wear them." The witch who was assisting them said. Kate gave a thunderous look and tapped her foot impatiently.  
  
"Come now, Kate. You'll be able to wear jeans on the weekends."  
  
"And you've such pretty ankles, Miss Rhys. You can do more to the boys with those than with any love potion you could mix up." The assisting witch said. Kate merely looked at her, eyebrow arched. Once they were done, Gwen looked at her watch.  
  
"What do we still need, Kate?" Gwen asked.  
  
Kate looked at the paper detailing her school supplies, "We still need my potions supplies, and my wand. Why do I need a wand, I already have my staff?"  
  
"Your staff is a bit unwieldy when it comes to school work. Besides, a wand is mandatory. Professor McGonagall said that you may bring your staff, but a wand is necessary for school work. Here, I'll let you get your wand while I go and get the potion supplies."  
  
Kate gave a resigned sigh and said, "All right." Gwen led her to a small, dusty shop.  
  
"Olivander's. Both your mother and I got our wands here. Now, I'll be back in a few minutes, Kate." Gwen left her standing inside the rather dark shop.  
  
"Hello," Kate called out, "Mr. Olivander? Is anyone here?" It seemed as though the place were deserted. Suddenly a small, bent man appeared.  
  
"A Rhys girl. It's been more than twenty years since I've seen one of the Rhys children in my shop. Now, you would be Gwen's little girl?"  
  
"Only second hand. My mother was Anwen."  
  
"Really? Ah, well then. I see that you need a wand. Now let's see." He began to pull out wands. Kate tried every one he handed to her. The more she tried, the more pleased he seemed. Finally, he pulled out a small, tarnished silver box. Opening it, he rubbed the silver handle of the wand. Kate could tell the type of wood at once.  
  
"Rowan wood?"  
  
"Ash, 13 inches, Pheonix feather core. I should have gone to this at the first. Rowan wood for a fey child. Try it."  
  
Kate gave the wand a wave. She felt a warmth in her hand, and an almost pleasant shiver ran down her spine.  
  
"Yes, yes. Perfect. The wand chooses the wizard. Rowan wood for a fey child. Though, you do look more like Gwen than your mother. Such a time I had when they came for their wands! Your aunt first met Sirius Black here in my store. Got into the most enormous row!"Mr. Olivander leaned in close to whisper into Kate's ear, "Everyone thought that they would make a match of it, way back before you were born."  
  
"Mr. Olivander!" Gwen's voice was sharp. Kate had never heard her aunt speak in such a tone. Then the imperious tone changed, and Gwen favored the old man with a smile that lit up the room, " I would like it if you would take a look at my old wand. I'm afraid I don't use it as much as I used to. Kate, dear, why don't you go and get some ice cream? I'll be only a moment or so. There's my girl."  
  
Kate did something that had never happened before, she obeyed without a word of protest or argument. There was something in her aunt's manner which was so strange, it shocked her into doing precisely what she was told.  
  
When Kate was safely down the street, Gwen turned to the old man, fire in her golden eyes, "Don't you ever speak to that child of Sirius Black, or that he and I were… connected. She might get some harebrained scheme in her head and go off looking for him. That is, if he hasn't been caught already?" The question betrayed something to Olivander. He nodded sagely. He should have expected this. Gwen Rhys was a stubborn woman, and had refused to believe Black's guilt.  
  
"No, he hasn't, and I doubt that he will ever be caught."  
  
"Thank the gods," Gwen whispered, "Do you think, perhaps, that you might send out discreet inquiries about his status?"  
  
"I might, madam." Olivander knew how to deal with the fey, he had many years of practice. This lady was particularly wily, "May I ask about the girl, my lady? She is your's?"  
  
"Only second hand, as Kate herself says. Tread lightly, old man. I'll await your news when I come back from the north. I have to meet with Fudge after I take Kate to Hogwarts. Discreet inquiries, mind you." She said as she swept out, her burgundy robes rustling.  
  
Olivander bowed. Gwen Rhys was not the descendant of Morgana Le Fey for nothing. And the child looked like she would become even more imperious. Just look at the wand which suited her. Rowan and pheonix feather, thirteen inches.  
  
Kate was eating a caramel apple sundae at the ice cream parlor. She hadn't changed into her robes yet.  
  
"Who're you?" a blonde boy about her age asked rudely.  
  
Kate let one eyebrow raise slightly. Gwen called it her 'ice princess look.' The boy stepped back a bit, as Kate said, with an amost malicious smile, "I'm the wicked witch of the West. If you're not careful, I might turn you into a newt."  
  
"Kate? Kate, where have you gotten to?" Gwen called out to her. She noticed the boy, "Oh, I see you've made a friend. How do you do, young man?"  
  
"No friend of mine, Aunt Gwen. He would have to learn manners to even have a chance of that." Kate said.  
  
"Well, then, be off with you. And now, Miss Kate, we'll have to get back to the inn. Old Tom is tickled pink to have the Ladies Rhys of Cannon Hill staying at the Leaky Cauldron." Gwen dropped the name deliberately. Kate got up and, stretching like a cat, ambled off with her aunt.  
  
When they arrived at Hogsmeade, Kate and Gwen took the boat ride over the lake's dark swirling waters. An enormous man, who introduced himself as Rubeus Hagrid, rowed them over in a little leaf shaped boat along with the first students, several years younger than Kate.  
  
"Hagrid! You're looking fit as ever," Gwen smiled.  
  
" Miss Gwen, yeh're not going ter get inter any trouble 'round here? Don' want ter give the teachers the wrong idea 'bout Katie here."  
  
Gwen raised three fingers, "Girl Scouts' promise."  
  
"There now. Well, Miss Katie, yeh'll be sent with the actual sixth years, after yeh get sorted into yer house. Yer mum was a Ravenclaw, but yer pretty auntie here was a Gryffindor. Ye'll find which one suits you best.  
  
"Ok… whatever you say."  
  
"Indeed, indeed. Ye'll meet all the professors here in a few minutes. There's Albus Dumbledore, headmaster, great man, is Dumbledore, Have you heard about your great-granddad, Bran, and the Professor? Great friends they were. Then there's Professors McGonagall, and Snape and Flitwick, and Trelawney and Sprout, and I teach Care of Magical Creatures. But here we are, and I'll let you ladies out now. 'Tis a great place, Hogwarts is. Ye'll like it, Miss Katie."  
  
"I hope so, Mr. Hagrid."  
  
"Just Hagrid, miss. Just Hagrid."  
  
The Sorting Hat was in the process of assigning the first years to their houses. The young people at the tables were whispering about the girl standing at the end of the line. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, much older than any of the others in the line. Her name was called out and she stepped up to the stool.  
  
"Rhys, Katherine A."  
  
The whispering increased. Kate looked about the hall, a bit confused. Apparently she was something of a celebrity. She was amazed at the amount of noise. Used to the quiet of Cannon Hill, and of the stillness of the battlefield at nightfall, the sheer number of children in the great hall unsettled her. She sat on the stool and the sorting hat was on her head. It moved about, trying to get a comfortable seat.  
  
"Well, well, well. It's been a long while since I've sat upon the head of a Rhys. Though I'm not quite sure about you. Wise, yes. Wise beyond your years you are, and that is Ravenclaw. Ambitious, though you may not realize it. You know what you want and aren't afraid to get it, whether by cunning or outright confrontation. Those are Slytherin traits. But there is more, much more. Willful as a cat, and just as fierce in the protection of the things you love most. From what's running through your head, young lady, I think I shall put you into GRYFFINDOR!" Kate slipped out from under the hat, which could still be heard chuckling, saying for all to hear, " Willful as a cat, she is, best to put her with the other lions."  
  
The Gryffindor table erupted into great cheering as she sat. Kate took a deep breath of relief. The boy next to her, offered his hand.  
  
"Hi, I'm Harry."  
  
"Kate. If you want to technical, Katherine Ariana Rhys."  
  
"If you want to get technical, then, Henry James Potter here." They both laughed.  
  
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Harry. Harry Potter! Small world, isn't it?"  
  
"Very. We're both pretty famous in the wizarding world, aren't we?"  
  
"Apparently so. I've never encountered anything like this though. It's a tad overwhelming, isn't it?" Kate replied.  
  
"I remember it being that way at first. Now it's not much more than a nuisance."  
  
"I can well believe that. Well, I must say that I am glad to be here rather than at the Salem Institute or the New Orleans Academy. My aunt doesn't get along with the Salem people and the New Orleans one just isn't up to scratch," Kate laughed. Harry liked her laugh. It was light and silvery, kind of like a lark, he decided. The boy sitting next to him leaned over an stuck out his hand.  
  
"Ron Weasley here. I hear you had a run in with a Dark wizard yourself. What was his name? My brother Charlie says that he's almost as bad as You-Know-Who!"  
  
"Lorenzo of the Forest of Illusion, and he was nasty, to say the least. Who is this You – Know - Who?"  
  
"Voldemort," Harry said quietly, " Everyone is afraid to say his name."  
  
" I was taught that knowing your enemy's name gives you power over them," Kate said just as quietly and earnestly.  
  
"What type is your wand?"  
  
"Well, I got a wand at Olivander's, as apparently I couldn't use my staff. But the wand is ten inches long, with a pheonix feather core, made of rowan wood. Mr. Olivander seemed quite pleased that I should get that wand. Said that he's had that wand for a very long time. You can tell it's quite old. Mr. Olivander had to polish the silver handle, it had gotten tarnished." Kate took out her smooth wand.  
  
The girl with frizzy hair introduced herself as Hermione, and said, "Pheonix feather wands are usually the nicest. Harry has a pheonix feather wand."  
  
"I'm still a bit akward with it. I'm so used to my staff… it has a bit more to it."  
  
"A bit more to it? Is it made of gold or something?"  
  
"Silver actually. Five feet tall with a large blue crystal at the top. I got it about a year ago." She jumped when a head came out of the platter of roast chicken, followed by the rest of a ghostly body.  
  
" Oh, good grief! You startled me!"  
  
"Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service m'dear. Why, you look as though you've never seen a ghost before!"  
  
"Nearly Headless Nick," Harry whispered to Kate.  
  
"My Aunt Gwen doesn't allow the ghosts in at supper time. And then, only Major Rhys is allowed to come into the house."  
  
"Rhys, you say that you're a Rhys! Why my dear dear girl! Finally, we have got the kin of Morgana Le Fey back in dear old Gryffindor! You say there is a Major Rhys who haunts your house?"  
  
"Garden, actually. Owain Rhys died at the battle of Gettysburg."  
  
"I am sorry to hear that. He was a pleasant fellow."  
  
"Yes, Sir Nicholas, that he is."  
  
"His son came here and was a classmate of Professor Dumbledore. Now, they were two of the wildest young men Gryffindor ever had. Made those Weasley twins seemed mild did they."  
  
The feast was over and Kate was led to the Gryffindor Tower. She had a bed in the girls' dormitory, right next to Hermione Granger, the girl with the bushy light borwn hair.  
  
"Orion! Where have you gotten to, you big furball?" Kate found him sitting on a windowsill,washing his face. A bright orange cat sat beneath him, obviously disgruntled and the worse of a fight.  
  
"Crookshanks!" Hermione cried out.  
  
"I'd say there's been a spat, and you Crookshanks has come out rather the worst for it. Orion," Kate called to the cat, who had been preoccupied with the white spire on his forehead, "Appologise at once! This is hardly the way to make a good impression our first day here. And don't you dare think of growing any larger. I'm not allowed to have a cat the size of a lion running about the place." Orion gave her a long-suffering, half- disgusted look, jumped down and offered a paw and whiskers to the orange cat. Crookshanks stiffened, but after a moment, accepted the offer of truce.  
  
"He actually did what I told him. Will wonders never cease?" Kate marveled as Gwen came into the room.  
  
"I see both of you have made some friends. So, my Kate, you're a Gryffindor. I haven't been in this tower in what seems like forever. I was a Gryffindor, you know, as was one of my beaus."  
  
Hermione piped up, " That would make you Golden Gwen of Gryffindor! The girl who half the boys and male professors were mad in love with!"  
  
"Well, not really, but there were a couple who could have been considered in the running," Gwen said, "Most everything has been exaggerated."  
  
"The only fellow who wasn't after you was Harry's dad! I heard that one of the reasons Professor Snape didn't like Siri…" Hermione trailed off, looking at Gwen.  
  
"So Snape is still teaching here? Well, well. I daresay you look enough like me Kate, to get away with a great deal. Severus Snape was very fond of me at one time."  
  
"But there was someone else, wasn't there, Auntie?"  
  
"Yes, there was someone else.. But you needn't listen to the ramblings of twenty years ago. Oh Kate, your hair! Those bangs are in a desperate need of a trim."  
  
"They're a pain, so I'm growing them back out," Kate protested.  
  
"They look dreadful.Use pins or clips to hold them back if you must. Come now, and kiss me goodbye."  
  
"Goodbye! But you were supposed to stay here for a while!"  
  
"The Council sent an owl, they can't seem to spare me. I have to meet with the British Minister of Magic in London tomorrow, and then I have to get back to Gettysburg."  
  
"It's not fair! One would think that the Council, sniveling pack of idiots though it is, could do without you for a week!"  
  
"I know it's not fair, dearest, but I will write as often as I can, and I will come here for the Christmas holidays, how is that?"  
  
"Oh, all right. I'll write too, and I'll try and figure out a way to send email, some things you just can't trust to owls."  
  
"Now, let me tuck you in, as I did when you were little."  
  
Kate climbed into bed, Orion curled up in the crook of her arm, as Gwen arranged the blankets. She was kissed on the forehead, and her hair was brushed from her face. Then the space before her was empty, and her aunt was gone.  
  
Kate had the oddest dreams that night. It was as though she was watching a play being acted out in front of her. She was in the Gryffindor Common Room and there were two other people in there with her. One was Gwen, only younger, about Kate's age or a little older, and the other was a tall young man, very handsome, with dark hair and pale blue eyes. They were arguing.  
  
"You aren't going to tell me what I can or cannot do, Sirius Black! If I want to go to Hogsmeade with Severus, that's my decision, not yours!" Gwen shouted at him.  
  
"He's a greasy, obnoxious reptile. Always trying to get us all in trouble."  
  
"Oh like you need help? Getting into trouble is your heart's delight and you know it. You and those other three. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs? Don't think I don't know what the four of you are up to… it begins with an 'A.' Not that it's really Lupin's fault. But you and James should know better, and Peter follows wherever you lead."  
  
"You're one to talk about behaving responsibly, Gwen. Who was it who went dancing out on the grounds in her nightgown last full moon? That was your fault as much as anybody's. It's a damn good thing we got poor Moony under control before he could get to you. He would have ripped you apart, or you would have called the Hunt. Either way, someone would have been dead."  
  
"I couldn't help going out there and dancing, Sirius. The full moon is as much a disease with me as it is with Moony. Just so long as I wasn't singing the Come-Hither it was all right. Besides, we none of us got caught, now did we?"  
  
"No, we didn't," the boy gave a lopsided grin, "Can you imagine how Snape would have reacted to seeing you out there in your nightgown, flitting in and out of the trees? His jaw would have ploughed a furrow in the ground." He laughed out loud. Kate decided that she liked his laugh.  
  
"Now don't you go and tease him. He'll likely put a curse on you, and it will take a week to clear up. He's been such a dear about develpoing a new version of the serum. If he can make it in injection form, that should clear up the dfficulties with dancing under the moon… well, at least the involuntary dancing," Gwen smiled in return.  
  
Sirius strode over to her and leaned down, brushing her hair out of her face, "How come we can never stay mad at one another?"  
  
"Don't know. We sure do try, though, don't we?"  
  
Kate watched as the two leaned close, thinking all the while, "Kiss her… oh kiss her!" Just as it seemed their lips were to touch, the surroundings swirled and the scene changed. Kate was in what seemed to be a dungeon room. Another young man with dark hair, this time greasy and lank, was hunched over a cauldron while Gwen sat on a stool, munching an apple.  
  
"It should be ready soon, Gwen," this lad said.  
  
"Oh thank you Severus. It's really very decent of you, to spend your time helping me with this serum," Gwen flashed a luminous smile at him, brightening up the dreary dungeon. He turned and caught the full force of it. This young man was obviously very much devoted to Gwen. His eyes followed her every movement, and an uncertain smile was on his lips… It seemed to Kate that he wasn't used to smiling, but for Gwen's sake tried. He took a syringe in a shaking hand.  
  
"Gwen, I… I don't want to hurt you."  
  
"Go ahead, Severus. I won't cry, I promise," Gwen smiled encouragingly. Kate watched as he put the needle in the girl's arm. After he finished, he wiped away the single drop of blood from Gwen's skin.  
  
"There now, Severus, it wasn't that bad. Why, you're shaking! You poor dear, you took it harder than I did."  
  
"How are you feeling?"  
  
"My knees feel a bit wobbly, But I get that with the drink."  
  
"Then it's working. Stay here for a while, though, I want to make certain that something doesn't go wrong."  
  
Gwen swooped down on him, kissing his cheek. Kate wasn't sure what to think. She liked that Sirius fellow better, but this Severus was clearly very much in love with her aunt. Kate wondered why Gwen hadn't married either man.  
  
Again, the scene changed. "This is making me dizzy," Kate thought. She was standing at the door of a small cottage. There was a tall, menacing figure in front of her. There was the sound of a man shouting, and Kate was inside the house. There was a dead man in the house, and kate turned when she heard the woman's pleading. It was a young woman, with red hair. She was holding a baby.  
  
"No, not Harry! Please! Anything but that!" The woman screamed as a flash of green light enveloped her body. The figure moved to the child, and Kate, panicking, reached for the horn at her side.  
  
"Touch the child and the Wild Hunt shall take your life, and soul!" The figure did not turn, but raised the wand at the child. Kate put the horn to her lips and blew. The explosion deafened her. But she was not harmed. Neither, so it seemed, was the little boy. Kate shook her head and muttered a few words to clear the air. The figure in the black robes was gone, the Hunt never appeared. Kate waded through the rubble, trying to revive the young woman.  
  
"Please, don't be dead! Don't be dead!" Kate cried out, "Please?" She picked the baby up, cradling him in her arms. He was such a little thing! There was the beginnings of a mop of black hair, and emerald green eyes looked at her tearfully. On his forehead, a livid scar burned bright.  
  
"Harry?" She exclaimed, "I must be in the past. Oh Harry, I'm sorry. I am so sorry," she crooned to the crying child, "Hush now. Shall I sing for you? You'd like something soft, a lullaby? I really only know sad songs. How about Kathleen Mavourneen? It's my favorite. I sing it for my battlefield ghosts.  
  
Kathleen Mavourneen! the grey dawn is breaking  
  
The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill,  
  
The lark from her light wing the bright dew is shaking  
  
Kathleen Mavourneen – what slumbering still!  
  
O hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever?  
  
O hast thou forgotten this day we must part?  
  
It may be for years and it may be forever;  
  
Oh, why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?  
  
It may be for years, it may be forever;  
  
Then why art thou silent, Kathleen Mavourneen?  
  
Kathleen Mavourneen! awake from thy slumbers  
  
The blue mountains glaw in the suns golden light,  
  
Ah! Where is the spell that once hung on my numbers?  
  
Arise in the beauty, thou star of my night.  
  
Mavourneen, mavourneen, my sad tears are falling  
  
To think that from Erin and thee I must part.  
  
It may be for years, and it may be forever;  
  
Oh, why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?  
  
It may be for years, and it may be forever;  
  
Then why art thou silent, Kathleen Mavourneen?"  
  
Kate sat there in the debris, singing to the baby. She sang many songs that night, till she saw the mighty voice of Hagrid, calling out for Baby Harry. She set him down gently and quickly hid behind a tree. If Hagrid had seen anything, he would have taken it for a ghost comforting the child. Kate watched till Hagrid had taken the child up, weeping noisily as he left.  
  
The next scene was that of Dumbledore, cradling a newborn baby in his arms. She watched the child tug his beard and heard his laugh, "Oh yes, willful as a cat, aren't we Katherine Silverhair? I can see you'll be a force to reckon with when next I see you," Dumbledore set the baby in the cradle, and told the great scarlet and gold bird to look after her. He then left the room. Suddenly there was a bright blue light, and Kate saw the figure standing over the cradle. The man stood straight and turned, stormy blue eyes just like her own gazing gravely at her, not through her as the other adults had. He beckoned her over. The phoenix still stood at the cradle's side. She leaned over and saw the silver pendant she always wore gleaming round the neck of the baby.  
  
"The past and the future meet in dreams, Kate. You'll forget this part till you have to remember. Morgana knows. Here now, give your grand- dad, several times removed, a kiss, Kate-Kat. You may look like Le Fey, but you've enough of me in you to keep things interesting," he kissed her forehead.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Now, Kate, who else could I be?"  
  
"Merlin?" The name echoed through the room and she heard Professor Dumbledore returning. Everything dissolved, Merlin, the phoenix, the cradle, the office. 


	3. More questions than answers

Kate woke up with a start. Orion, unhappy at being jostled, pawed at her. She paid him no mind. Kate got out of bed, and paced about in the dark room. Her pajamas were thinand the stone floor was cold, so she got out her robe and slippers. Then she began to pace again. The images she had seen were disturbing. They didn't really seem connected, yet, in another sense, they were. She quietly opened the doors of the dormitory and headed to the common room, the cat following her.  
  
She sat on the window-seat, gazing out at the stars, trying to figure out why she had seen what she had. The part with her aunt and the young men was straightforward enough, but the part with herself and Dumbledore puzzled her more than the rest of them combined. The incident had taken place here at Hogwarts, she was certain. But that would have meant that this was where she had been born. She shook her head. Dumbledore would know. He'd know what those dreams meant. But they could wait till tomorrow. She opened the window, and let the early half-summer, half-autumn breeze in. It played with her hair and the song of it gently rocked her to a peaceful sleep. Orion curled up on her lap and they both slept soundly till they were found the next morning by Harry, who had gotten up early for some reason or another.  
  
"Kate! What are you doing in here? Why aren't you in the girls' dormitory?"  
  
"Hmm? Oh, I must have drifted off. What time is it?"  
  
"Almost six."  
  
"Six? Ugh. I'm going back to bed till I have to get up. It's amazing what two hours sleep will do for a person. G'night Harry."  
  
"It's morning."  
  
"I hate mornings," she said cheerfully, and went off humming Kathleen Mavourneen.  
  
"Hey Kate, where did you learn that song?"  
  
"My aunt taught it to me. It's my favorite song."  
  
"Could you sing it?"  
  
"Sure." She sang the song, with a new sweetness to her voice and an odd yearning. Except in her dream, it was the first time she had ever sang it away from the battlefield. This time there were no ghostly soldiers drifting from all parts of the field to listen; Plum Run was not gurgling accompaniment in the distance. When she had finished, Harry looked at her with bright green eyes.  
  
"I get memories of when my parents died in flashes. I…I know that song. Someone sang it to me that night, after… well after. I think it was a ghost. A girl in a white dress. She looked kind of like you, and had that necklace."  
  
"I was born that night, on Samhain. I've always had this pendant, it's in every one of my baby pictures, even from when I was only a few days old." She held up the silver necklace with Celtic circle. It shone bright, even in the half-darkness which precedes dawn. As she held it up, the sun's first light shone over the horizon, and the room seemed on fire in the reflection of the piece of jewelry. The two young people suddenly had enormous shadows, reaching out towards the dawn.  
  
"Whoa, how'd you do that?"  
  
"I didn't. Well, not on purpose. I've never had it out at daybreak before. I'm a bit of a night owl."  
  
"That's odd, isn't it? Were you really born on that Halloween?"  
  
"Just as the clock turned to midnight, that's what I was told."  
  
"When Voldemort killed my parents and I got this," he pulled his hair away from his forehead, revealing a scar shaped like a bolt of lighting. Kate looked at it for a moment.  
  
"That's where the spell bounced off you." It was not a question. He nodded, and she turned, catching the now fully risen sun's rays on her face.  
  
"I had the oddest dreams last night. They were of places, till now, I had never been to, people I had never seen. They made me very uneasy. All jumbled up, like the remote to a TV set had gone haywire. Going from watching one to the next, usually just when things were getting interesting. Almost at the very end, though, I wasn't really watching. It seemed more like I was there. I saw a murder, even though I tried to stop it. There was a flash of green light and a howl of fury. Stumbling through the ruins of a destroyed house, I found a baby still alive, beside a dead mother. I picked the little one up, and held him for the longest time. Then I sang. The first one I sang was the one you had me sing just now. I had dreamed of singing it and so it was there in my head. Did it really happen? Or maybe you just heard the echoes of my dreams." She was wandering in voice, she sounded almost far away.  
  
"I know the song. I know someone sang it to me that night. I would play that voice singing that song over and over in my head when I was lonely. And I was lonely a lot. It was like your voice, only it couldn't have been, cause you had only just been born."  
  
"I…I think we should go back to bed. We've only an hour left for sleep now," Kate ran back to the girls' dormitory, Orion bouncing indignantly over her shoulder. Harry was left in the common room, with new questions, about Kate, about the night his parents died. He didn't get back to sleep that morning. But then, neither did Kate. She lay in her bed awake, Orion curled up on her stomach, kneading the blanket lightly with his claws.  
  
That morning, classes began. Most everything was review for Kate. In Potions class, she met up with the a person from her dream. Professor Snape was the same person as the young man in the dungeon. The greasy-haired boy who had trouble smiling had become a greasy-haired man with a perpetual sneer. As he went over roll, he paused over her name.  
  
"Katherine Rhys?" She raised her hand, and he nodded. But as he turned her sharp ears caught a snippet of a comment, "The little lark has come to roost." She puzzled over that the whole lesson.  
  
Professor Snape did not address her directly the entire class period, though whenever she happened to look up from her notes or cauldron, she found him staring at her intently. However, anything Harry, Ron, or Hermione did was almost universally disapproved of. Harry especially seemed to bear the brunt of it. Kate thought that if Snape would just say something to her, nasty or otherwise, she would feel much better. The almost constant, yet silent observation unnerved her. When class was over, he called her name and asked her to stay behind for a moment.  
  
"Miss Rhys?" he motioned her over to his desk.  
  
"Please call me Kate. My aunt has always been Miss Rhys."  
  
Snape continued as if she hadn't interrupted, "Your aunt is safely to London and afterwards home?"  
  
"Yes, Professor. She was supposed to have stayed the week but the Council could not spare her," she did not bother to hide her scorn of the Council of Sorcery.  
  
"I see. I would have liked to speak to her. I haven't seen her since your mother's funeral…" at the look on Kate's face, he broke off abruptly, " Miss Rhys, I understand you have a medical condition."  
  
Kate was confused for a moment, but when he referred to her 'allergy,' she was back on solid ground, "Oh, my… 'allergy'. I have to take a serum once every two weeks. I usually make up about two month's worth at a time, the stuff keeps for about that long without losing potency. The serum allows me the ability to handle the cold iron."  
  
"You are to take this serum in my class, so that I may be sure the dosage is correct. Madam Pomfrey doesn't know a great deal about the Fey."  
  
Kate nodded, a bit thunderstruck by his manner. He had been so outright mean to her friends, and now he was being, well, nice to her. "I take it by injection, which keeps me from needing it every day, as would be the case if I had to take it internally, sir."  
  
"I know, you may go now, Katherine."  
  
"Oh, just call me Kate!" She laughed, and gathered her books and fled the dungeon room. Harry, Ron and Hermione were waiting outside for her.  
  
"What was that all about?" Ron said.  
  
"I'll tell you later, he was right behind me. Let's go," she said tersely.  
  
Snape was indeed right behind them, "Potter, what are you doing, loitering about in the hall? Ten points from Gryffindor!"  
  
Kate whirled about and gave Snape a stare that would have done the famous Morgana Le Fey proud – one delicate brow arched and blue eyes suddenly blazing with gold, hands on her hips, "I had asked them to wait for me," then she gave him a dazzling smile, " I don't know where anything is."  
  
Snape gave a short sound, almost a laugh. "You look like your aunt when you get angry. Go on, before I take away more points."  
  
The four fled the corridor. It was lunchtime afterwards. As they sat at the Gryffindor table Kate breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"What an odd man! First he calls me something which I didn't quite catch, then he stares after me during class. And then when he had me stay after, he said that he knew my aunt, and that apparently he had been to my mother's funeral."  
  
"Wouldn't you remember him, then?"  
  
"I can't remember a thing about that day, no matter how hard I try. I've given up trying to understand about that. But let me finish. Professor Snape then tells me that I have to take my cold iron serum after his class so that I don't hurt myself. As if I hadn't been doing this for years! And that scene in the corridor! He seemed outright amused that I got my back up. Like he was testing me or something, and I delivered."  
  
"Who cares? He's a nutcase, everybody hates him. Only the Slytherins pretend not to. The rest of us don't even bother," said Ron.  
  
Hermione said, "We were lucky to get away with as much as we did."  
  
"He had a funny look on his face when he said you looked like your aunt," Harry said.  
  
"That's right! She said that Snape liked her when they were at Hogwarts at the same time. I wonder who the other person she seemed fond of was?"Hermione exclaimed.  
  
"Hope it wasn't anyone like Snape," Kate muttered, then said, a bit louder, " I have a nasty habit of eavesdropping, among other things, and I remember Mom telling Gwen that she was out of her mind, that there was no way they would let HIM (capital letters, mind you) out of Azkaban, even under the custody of the Lady of the Green," Kate twisted her pendant about, letting the light catch it.  
  
"Azkaban? Her other beau was a Death-Eater?"  
  
"I dunno. When I was really little, Aunt Gwen seemed sad about something. After Daddy died, Mom and I moved to Cannon Hill to be with Gwen, because she said it was so very lonely there. Once, after Mom died, she told me that she could hear a voice on the wind, as though the sighs of someone she loved were being carried from across the sea. I thought that she meant my mother, but, why would it be across the sea, then?"  
  
"Well, like as not the fellow is dead if he were in Azkaban what? Fifteen or so years ago? The only person to ever really escape Azkaban, well, without outside help, was Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. Say, Saturday, we ought to head into Hogsmeade. D'you think that we shall bring Kate to visit Snuffles. I'm sure he'd like her," said Ron.  
  
"Sirius? I've heard that name before. Does he have… very pale blue eyes? Kate asked suddenly, remembering her dream.  
  
"I'll tell you later; when there's no one about," Harry hissed at her, then said in a louder voice, "I'll send Hedwig to see if it's all right."  
  
That evening, Harry found Kate reading in the Gryffindor common room. "Come on," he said. He took out his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself and Kate. He consulted a map of Hogwarts and the led her to a small, out of the way room. He shut and locked the door.  
  
"Just in case Filch comes prowling about. Lumos," he said, lighting his wand.  
  
"Why all this secrecy, Harry?"  
  
"Its about Sirius Black. Do you know the story?"  
  
"No, I've never heard it. Tell me."  
  
"He was my dad's greatest friend. Best man at my parents wedding, my godfather. When Voldemort was after my parents, he was to be their Secret Keeper. But, at the last minute, he backed out and had them make a wizard by the name of Peter Pettigrew do it. No one knew that though. So when Pettigrew betrayed my mum and dad to Voldemort, everyone thought that it was Sirius. Pettigrew was an Animagus, and he faked his own death, to make Sirius look more guilty. Sirius was captured and spent the next twelve years to Azkaban. When he escaped two years back, he came here, to Hogwarts because he had figured out that Pettigrew was alive, and had been living in the form of a rat for twelve years. Everyone thought that Sirius Black was after me, though. Finally everything was figured out. Sirius was innocent, although only a few people know it. He escaped the dementors, with my help, and Hermione's. Pettigrew turned back into a rat and returned to Voldemort. Sirius is still wanted by the Ministry of Magic. And Voldemort has returned, thanks to Wormtail… I mean Pettigrew."  
  
"Wormtail? Of… Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?" Kate asked.  
  
"How did you know those nicknames?" Harry was surprised.  
  
Kate decided not to say anything more about her dream, so she just said, "My aunt. I'd say she was in Gryffindor at the same time. She gave me a picture, of her with a bunch of other kids," Kate pulled a small booklet of photos from a pocket. There were only a few wizard pictures in it. Harry immediately recognized the one she was talking about. Kate pointed out her aunt to him. "There's Aunt Gwen. She's the one beside the boy with dark hair and light blue eyes. She told me that she had given him the rabbit ears, and made the bubbles come out of them."  
  
"Sirius."  
  
"There's Professor Lupin; and a short little fellow with a pointy nose, is the pretty girl with the red hair your mom?"  
  
"Yeah. And the fellow beside her is my dad. How did you know the nicknames?"  
  
" I asked Gwen about who they were, and all she would say was, ' School fellows of mine. They're all dead now, except for Moony.' And she pointed Lupin out to me."  
  
"I think I have a copy of that photo, and some others with her! Your aunt is the pretty girl with blonde hair and the yellow eyes." Harry said, excited now. Kate nodded.  
  
"Moony and Wormtail are accounted for. Were they all Animagi, to have such nicknames?"  
  
"Yeah. Professor Lupin is a werewolf, so he's Moony. Pettigrew was a rat – Wormtail. My dad was a stag, so he was Prongs. And Sirius is Padfoot."  
  
"He's a black dog."  
  
"How'd you know?"  
  
"His name. Sirius is the dog star."  
  
"Weird! I never thought of that. Hey that's real clever."  
  
"Ok, then, who is Snuffles?" Kate asked.  
  
Harry leaned in close and whispered into her ear, "Snuffles is our code name for Sirius when we're talking around other people. We can't call him by bane because he's a wanted man, and we can't call him Padfoot because certain people know that nickname as well."  
  
"You mean Professor Snape," Kate said.  
  
"Yeah," Harry answered.  
  
"So we're going to see Sirius on Saturday?"  
  
"We are. We need to bring him food, too, though. He'll go out as the dog and eat rats when he gets hungry if we don't."  
  
"That's terrible. Well we can make certain that doesn't happen. I have some non-perishables in the dormitory, Gwen knows I like to be prepared for just about anything. We can pack that and some soda and coffee up for him. And get some hot food from the kitchens. It gets cool up here in the Highlands sooner than it does in Pennsylvania."  
  
"Good idea. He'll really appreciate that. He's a great guy, Kate, you'll like him. I know it."  
  
On their visit to Hogsmeade, Kate found some fascinating places. Having lived within fifty miles Hershey, Kate fell in love with Honeydukes. Zonkos was enough to saitsfy her onery side. At Madam Rosmerta's they had butterbeer. When the others led her up a rather dark pathway, she followed, watchful. She jumped when a cold nose was pressed against her hand.  
  
"Oh, good grief! You could have tokd me you were there. You startled me, you know."  
  
"You've found him! What's up, Snuffles?" Harry laughed. They began to walk up the pathway, which became more and more difficult as they moved along. The dog stuck close to Kate, watching her with luminous blue eyes. When they had reached a crevice in the mountainside, they all squeezed themselves in. At the back of the small cave, an enormous shadow lay, wings folded. Hermione walked over to give a few good bones to it, smiled and called out, "Buckbeak!" She was petting and cooing to a large gray hippogriff.  
  
"He's almost the same color as my Traveller," Kate whispered.  
  
"Traveller?" A deep voice asked. Kate whirled about to see a tall man dressed in tattered robes, with long dark hair. He was an older, more care- worn version of the boy in her dream.  
  
"My horse. Named after Robert E. Lee's horse."  
  
"That would be your aunt's influence, no doubt."  
  
"Yes. I'm Kate."  
  
"How could you be anyone but Kate? You look so much like Gwen it's almost uncanny. Tell me, do her children look like her? You don't have the blonde hair or the cat-gold eyes.  
  
"She doesn't have any children. Unless you count me, and I am second- hand. Aunt Gwen has been both my mom and my dad since I was nine."  
  
"You could have no one better. You really do resemble her more than Anwen."  
  
"So everyone keeps telling me. Oh, I nearly forgot. We brought food and drink. All sorts of good things. Chicken and dumplings from the kitchens, fresh bread or biscuits, your choice. Butter and jam too. Some non-perishables, condensed soup and the like. Oh, and I wrangled some soda pop out of my aunt from her last package. Ummm, what else? Oh yes, some cookies and snack cakes, and a whole bunch of apples from Cannon Hill, my very own orchard. We also brought coffee and sugar. Creamer was too hard to get. Harry said that you'd had to eat rats a while back… You won't ever have to again if I can help it." Kate's eyes shined for a moment, like stars in the dark cave. Sirius looked down at the girl, struck by the kindness shown to him.  
  
"You've great compassion in you, to treat a known murderer such," he said, testing her.  
  
She shook her head, "I reserve my judgement. The good opinions of my friends and the affection of my aunt are testimonials highly in your favor."  
  
"The affection of your aunt?"  
  
"She never believed any of the allegations against you."  
  
"Steadfast Gwen. Stubborn Gwen. I miss that girl!" He smiled as Kate began to lay out a picnic sheet, and spread out food. She knew what she was doing, and didn't bother to ask for help. Here again was the influence of Golden Gwen. Kate handed him a plate full of steaming hot chicken and dumplings, conjuring a tray along with silverware. She poured a cup of coffee and opened a can of soda for him. He ate with relish, he hadn't had anything this good in a long time. Usually the things the other children brought were cold by the time it got to him. And they could usually only get pumpkin juice or butterbeer. He learned one thing about Kate Rhys in the hour that he had known her – she was a resourceful girl, and one who was used to getting her own way about things, no doubt about that.  
  
She opened four more cans of crisply cold soda pop. "We'll need something to drink before the way down," she took a deep draught of cream soda, and picked up a tawny apple. She made a mental note to have Gwen send some of her grandfather's old robes in her next package. Sirius couldn't manage the coming winter without something much warmer then the tattered robes he had, and he couldn't spend the entire time as a dog. Suddenly, she felt very close, so she danced up and headed towards the mouth of the cave.  
  
"I need to go outside. This cave is so… I get terribly claustrophobic, Mr. Black."  
  
"Please, call me Sirius."  
  
Kate grinned and went outside, to get some fresh air. She was feeling terribly closed off in the cave. Ron and Hermione went with her, leaving Harry with his godfather.  
  
"Isn't she something?" he remarked to Sirius.  
  
"She is. There is more than a mere touch of humanity in her. Gwen and Anwen were the best women in the world, but they lacked that odd enthusiasm your Kate has."  
  
"She's not my Kate. And she is such an odd girl, she adores the adventure of Hogwarts, she's never really been around other kids, but you can tell she gets terribly homesick at times. She has a magic way of watching movies, and she was crying over a movie called Gettysburg, late a couple nights ago. I asked her what the matter was and she just said, ' I miss my battlefield!' and cried harder."  
  
"From what I know, her story is just as strange as your own. She was born the night you got that scar," the older man replied, "Funny thing is, she looks more like Gwen than Anwen. Annie, we called her. And Kate's eyes, they're nothing like the Rhys' eyes. They've all got golden eyes. Not brown or green, mind you, but a bright yellow. Never seen a Rhys with blue eyes before," he said thoughtfully.  
  
"They sort of look like yours, only a lot darker," Harry said suddenly.  
  
"Go on, they're waiting on you. I'll come down as far as Hogsmeade with you," Sirius turned into the great black dog. He watched Kate all the way down. She waited for everyone else to head down the path before she did, then followed lightly. The rocky path didn't seem to phase her. 


	4. Happy birthday, soap bubbles and tabby c...

Mid- October  
  
Kate had been informed that she would be working on her serum during potions class. She obeyed quietly, and class was about halfway through when she had to go and get some essence of lavender. She found it amusing that her serum was mostly herbal, and didn't require some of the more disgusting ingredients. Still, even though it was herbal, that didn't mean it was as harmless as chamomile tea. As she came back with the vial, she saw Draco Malfoy hovering near her sweet-smelling cauldron.  
  
"What did you do? Malfoy, tell me you didn't drink that potion!" Kate cried.  
  
"Every last drop." The blond boy said smugly.  
  
"You fool. You imbecile! You great, thundering, oaf! That was my serum. It's not meant to be ingested! It's a special mixture which enables me to handle iron and steel. That was the last batch I had! I won't get anymore for two months!" She roared, furious.  
  
"Big deal. It's not like you really need it. All of your things are silver."  
  
"That doesn't mean jack. Too many common things have iron in it! It's just not safe," Kate was working herself into one of the wicked tempers which, though generally uncommon, were making a name for themselves at Hogwarts.  
  
"What is this?" a voice asked from behind her. It was Professor Snape.  
  
"Malfoy just drank two month's worth of my serum… I won't be able to get any more for injection purposes till then. Which means I'll have to drink a variation of it every day."  
  
"Malfoy, go striaght to the hospital wing. That potion wasn't meant to be drank. I don't know what it will do to you."  
  
"Hopefully, he'll end up with rocks in his intestines… If he is very lucky," Kate said, glowering at the retreating Malfoy.  
  
"Katherine, go to my office. You know the ingredients for the potion? Here is the key to the cupboard, set them out. Heat a cauldron full of water. Don't do anything more than that. I will show you how to mix the ingestible serum as soon as the calss is over." The alarm in Snape's voice startled the whole class, "Everyone, back to work!" He snapped at them all after Malfoy had left, looking a tad green, as Kate gathered her things, and stormed towards his office. The other students felt a palpable change in the barometric pressure of the room once the Gryffindor hurricane.  
  
But by the time she had set out everything and set the cauldron a- boiling, her mood had lightened. She laughed and recited MacBeth. "Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble!"  
  
"Muggle poetry at its worst."  
  
"Oh, how about this? 'What a piece of work is man, how express and admirable… in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a god!' Come now, Professor, next you're going to tell me that they cannot produce anything worthwhile. 'If you prick us, do we not bleed?' Yes, I know, I read too much for my own good," that irrepresible half-smile! Snape wasn't sure if she was merely teasing him, or making fun of him.  
  
It seemed pointless to argue with her so he merely said, " Is the cauldron boiling?"  
  
"It is."  
  
"Then these are the things you have to put in there. Now, remember, you're half Muggle, so the balance is different than if you were full Fey," he handed her the potion and she drank it, making a face.  
  
"Gross. I can't believe I have to drink this crud for two whole months."  
  
"Does it feel like it's working?"  
  
"My hands are tingling and my knees feel a bit trembly. It'll wear off though. Thanks Professor," she flashed him a smile and opened the door, lightly grasping the wrought iron handle. She had not gone two steps out of the office when she stopped dead in her tracks, looked at her hand, and turned.  
  
"Professor, I…I touched the handle and… it burns," she swayed suddenly, and Snape moved to catch her as she fell. Harry, coming in to get Kate for their next class, stared at Snape, who was working feverishly over the unconscious girl.  
  
"Kate? What happened?"  
  
"Go get Dumbledore, Potter. Now!" Harry ran as fast as he could to the headmaster's office. Snape took Kate's pulse and made sure she was breathing. He could not understand why the potion did not work. He had made sure it was the right combination. Dumbledore hurried in at that moment, followed by Potter.  
  
"She had to drink the cold iron serum. I made sure it was the right amount for a Fey mother and a Muggle father. I don't know what went wrong," Snape's voice shook.  
  
Dumbledore knelt at Kate's side, "Brew some more, Severus. Make it the strength for the child of a fey and a wizard."  
  
"But that will be too strong." Snape protested.  
  
"It will be strong enough to keep her from having to stay in the hospital wing. Go on, Severus. Harry, hold her head please. Now, I want you to check the tips of her ears. Yes, just like that. See how very pointed they are right now? They will become less pronounced as she regains consciousness. And the points will become even less prominent once Professor Snape gives her the potion she is working on now, then we'll know that she is all right. Look now, she is coming around."  
  
"The potion must have been to weak," Kate said in a voice much softer than her usual clear tones, "But Professor Snape wouldn't have made that mistake even if I had. I don't understand."  
  
"Hush now, my dear, and take your medicine. It should be ready by now," Dumbledore said kindly. Snape hovered over her, holding a small vial filled with an orange concotion.  
  
"Drink the whole thing as quickly and steadily as you can. In about five minutes it should begin to take effect. The dizziness will have passed by then. I don't think you should go to any more of your classes today. The cold iron sickens and weakens the fey," Snape said, as gently as Harry had ever heard him speak.  
  
The brew was beginning to take effect, making Kate a bit giggly and misty eyed, "How do you know so much about the Daoine Sidhe, Professor? There are not that many of us… At least not many of us who are half-blood or more. All the rest went to the Otherworld."  
  
"Both your aunt and your mother were full blooded fey. I ended up treating Gwen, and Annie in turn, once they had got into trouble during school. There are different treatments for the Sidhe than for wizards or Muggles in this case. I became quite the expert," he then said something so out of character that Harry nearly dropped the vial he had been handed, " Thank you for going so quickly, Potter, thirty points to Gryffindor."  
  
Harry and Dumbledore helped her up. Kate was very pale, even more so than usual, She was able to stand by herself, though she seemed as though a puff of wind could blow her away.  
  
"Shall I conjure a stretcher?"  
  
"No, thank you, Professor Dumbledore. I think, perhaps, that I would like my cat. He can be so useful at times," she put a small whistle to her lips. A few minutes later the black cat entered the room, looking about with his bright peridot eyes.  
  
"Hello, my green eyed monster. Shall you help me back to Gryffindor?" Kate murmured. The cat cocked his head and left the room, standing just outside the doorway. Then he grew. And grew. Orion grew till he was the size of a Siberian tiger. Even Dumbledore was speechless with shock. Kate walked slowly to the cat and perched herself lightly on his back.  
  
"I hope he didn't startle you. Orion doesn't do this often. In fact I didn't even know that he could till this past summer. It won't be a problem, will it?"  
  
"Is… is he safe, Kate?" Harry asked when he found his voice.  
  
"Of course he's safe. He's a big baby, you've heard me call him often enough."  
  
"Just make sure he doesn't do this unless in great emergencies, Kate, and I see no difficulties in keeping him here. Though I think it would have been better if you had informed us of your cat's particular power," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.  
  
"Gwen had a cat like that. Leonidas. That feline could do the oddest things," Snape said.  
  
"Leonidas is Orion's sire," Kate replied.  
  
"Well then, all is settled. Let's get you up to Gryffindor Tower, Kate," Dumbledore said, ending the conversation.  
  
  
  
The Gryffindor and Slytherins were in their Care of Magical Creatures class. Hagrid was trying to convince Kate to call some fey horses. Kate, was about to call them when, her eyes wandering about the grounds caught a movement at Hagrid's feet. A serpent, crawling across the ground… a hooded serpent.  
  
"Hagrid, watch out it's a…" her exclaimation of warning was cut short. As the cobra reared to strike, a cry, more shrill even than a girl'scream, rent the air.  
  
A hawk had intervened, tearing the throat out of the snake. It circled once about the class, displaying it's trophy, then dropped the cobra to the ground at Kate's feet. It then fluttered to her arm, looking for all the world as though it belonged there.  
  
Just as taken aback as the others, Kate was thankful for her thick dragon-hide gloves, " How now, Bright Wanderer, from whither doest thou comest?" she said softly, taken with the kestrel.  
  
Hagrid put his hand to his chest and breathed deeply, "Now he's a right pretty bird there. Saved us all. Is he yer's, Katie?"  
  
"Never seen him before in my life. Here now, get off… Who are you, Wanderer? Wait, here's a bit of parchment attached to his leg." She wrangled the paper off, and the hawk moved to her shoulder, as though to read it with her. As she unrolled the paper, she found a verse.  
  
"Hail Lady, Katherine Silverhair!  
  
In whose birth things were greatly dared.  
  
Of Morgan and Merlin you are the child,  
  
Brilliant, daring, powerful, wild.  
  
Come to us now from over the sea,  
  
This guardian waits, watchful for thee."  
  
"She can't have it!" Draco Malfoy exploded, "We're only allowed to have one pet here and hawks aren't approved!"  
  
"Shut up," Kate didn't even glance at Malfoy when she said it, she was too intent on the message, "I still don't understand. There is no signature. It doesn't say who this hawk is from."  
  
"Well, I think yeh'd better go to Professor Dumbledore. Odds are if he doesn't already know what it's about, he'll figure it out right quick," Hagrid said, "Go on now, the password is…ah… I think it's 'peanut butter fudge.' Not sure though. Might as well try it."  
  
Kate nodded and went. The hawk, still settled on her shoulder, half turned and gave Malfoy a malevolent glare. It gave a sharp cry and turned back.  
  
Kate hurried to Dumbledore's office. "Peanut butter fudge," she said and the statue turned, giving way to a spiral staircase. She knocked on the door to Dumbledore's office. She heard Snape, speaking low to Dumbledore. The door opened to Snape coming out, looking as though he was ready to pop a blood vessel. Dumbledore followed.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Snape snapped at her. Kate gave him what was now known as the 'ice princess look' which were almost inevitably unsettling as the wild tempers.  
  
"There was an… incident during my Care of Magical Creatures class."  
  
"This is a very fine hawk, Kate. Where did he come from?" Dumbledore said, blinking at the fierce kestrel on her shoulder. Wordlessly she handed the small not to him. Once he had read it, she told him about the snake.  
  
"I don't know who sent this bird to you, but I should say that he is already devoted to you. If he had not arrived at the nick of time… He is a rare gift."  
  
"What am I to do with him?"  
  
"Find a name for him," Dumbledore said, his merry blue eyes twinkling.  
  
"She cannot have more than one pet here, Headmaster," Snape intervened, "She already has that monstrous black cat."  
  
"Orion isn't monstrous! He just has a nasty habit of deciding to grow or shrink at inconvenient times. But I don't know what to do with this bird!"  
  
"You may have a special dispensation to keep him. As he is a gift." Dumbledore said.  
  
Kate ran her hand over the bird's plumage, "Well, now Bright Wanderer. I have a feeling that you've gotten exactly what you wanted. Are you pleased?"  
  
"Bright Wanderer?" Snape asked.  
  
"After the ancient high king."  
  
"An excellent name. You've a real talent for such things, Kate,"Dumbledore clapped his hands and smiled.  
  
"Some people say I read too much fiction."  
  
"Only when fiction is given the trappings of the truth is it dangerous," Snape said in a low voice.  
  
"That's an interesting philosophy, Professor. Certain journalists would do well to learn that."  
  
Halloween was a great time at Hogwarts. Great tricks were played and Kate's excitement over her 'sweet sixteen' birthday affected nearly all the Gryffindors. Her ability to do big magic, without a wand, made her the perfect trickster, clever as anything, with a great talent for not getting caught. Sometimes she didn't even have to use magic to pull a trick. The non-magic gags were often the best, as they were pulled on people who would have no clue as to how it could happen. The best examples of her mischief were perpetrated on Malfoy, and when she was feeling very bold, in Snape's class. The very best trick was a curse that no one was able to unbind. Kate really didn't even mind that she got caught.  
  
"It's Potty, the Weasel, Miss Mudblood and the Fairy Princess." Malfoy mocked.  
  
"Malfoy, if you can't keep a civil tongue in your mouth, I'll sew it shut… with a dull needle," Kate said in a soft, threatening voice.  
  
"Times like this makes me glad she's on our side," Ron whispered to Harry.  
  
"Bitch, Mudblood bitch!"  
  
"Even only half-Daoine Sidhe, I am of better and more illustrious lineage than you, for all your prating of pure blood. But then, you do look… well, inbred."  
  
"I'm going to tell Professor Snape, then you'll get it, you Mudblood!" Malfoy snapped. Kate gave him a look of thunder, pointed her finger at him and spoke in a low, carrying voice.  
  
"Then again, I think you need your mouth washed out with soap.  
  
Bind this boy's mouth with detergent\  
  
When he says things most repugnent  
  
Suds shall issue forth insurgent  
  
From his lips till all vitriol;  
  
Unsightly stains of sound  
  
Are all removed, here withal…"  
  
Kate threw back, the gold rings of her eyes widening till they swallowed the iris. She laughed and they returned to normal. "You'll not find that a curse to break… unless of course you learn to behave like a decent human being. Not even Professor Dumbledore can undo that particular curse. Once spoken, it can only be cured by the good behavior of the subject. Kind of like that 'Beauty and the Beast' fairy tale."  
  
"Kate, it's Snape! Let's get to our seats," Hermione hissed to her as the Gryffindors hurried to their seats. Snape did not notice that anything had been afoot, however. He seemed much to intent on something else entirely. Kate smiled demurely as they gathered their ingredients for the day's potion. She busied herself upon her concoction.  
  
Suddenly there was a curse and then a great commotion over in the Slytherin section. Malfoy was hopping about, bubbles erupting from his mouth. The Gryffindors began to snicker, but stopped at Snape's angry glance.  
  
"Ugh, Professor Snape!"  
  
"What is going on, Malfoy?"  
  
"That… That bitch, Kate Rhys…" As soon as he said the word 'bitch', Malfoy began to gag and the bubbles reappeared. The smell of lye soap permeated the dungeon room.  
  
"What about Katherine?"  
  
"He was calling her names, and she lost her temper."  
  
"Temper, Miss Granger?" Snape's voice was low, but even.  
  
"He called me a… a…" Kate's voice trembled, and she looked up at Snape tearfully, " A Mudblood bitch. How could I fail to lose my temper? Now, whenever he says something nasty or untruthful, his mouth fills with soap and he burps bubbles." All the Gryffindors laughed at her comment.  
  
"Quiet," Snape looked furious for a moment, then his eyes cleared and the little tick in his temple eased, "Is it any use to ask if it can be undone?"  
  
"It cannot be undone till he learns to speak without meaning to harm or insult. The charm is full of old magic. I just put a new twist to it."  
  
"I must give you a detention, Katherine."  
  
"What about Malfoy?"  
  
"Hasn't he been punished enough?" Snape smiled briefly at her, "I daresay many mothers would like to learn that charm to threaten children with. Stay behind from class to get your serum and I shall arrange your detention. Now, everyone, back to work."  
  
After the class was over, Kate gathered her things together. "Save a seat for me at lunch," she said to Ron, Harry and Hermione, "He'll probably find something nasty for me to do, like disemboweling beetles."  
  
"OK, Kate, but hurry. It's Halloween, there's bound to be something good to eat," Ron said.  
  
"I'd noticed that it's Halloween. It's my birthday, remember? Now, go on, I won't be much longer than usual," she turned and followed Snape, who beckoned her towards his office. He indicated a chair and she sat. He sat at his desk, it was a dark, ornate chair, almost throne-like. She noticed that the one in which she rested gingerly was little more than a glorified stool.  
  
"I am very disappointed in you, Katherine. You shouldn't allow anyone to goad you into such childish displays," Snape began.  
  
"Just tell me what my detention will be, please. I don't need the 'I'm not angry, just disappointed' speech."  
  
"I need an assistant for my first year class on Friday afternoons. They're hopelessly stupid, and you're one of the few people in this school who has a decent hand at potions."  
  
"My background in chemistry; finally put to good use. For how long?"  
  
"A month, but if you don't misbehave, you could do it for extra credit to your house. Please, Katherine? I don't want you getting into any more trouble."  
  
"All right," she said resignedly.  
  
Snape actually smiled a genuine smile, then handed her the cold iron serum. She downed it quickly, and picked up her books.  
  
"I don't want to miss lunch. Harry, Ron, and Hermione promised me birthday cake. And I smell presents in the air." She flashed a quick smile and raced out towards the Great Hall.  
  
Snape watched as she turned the corner, her light footsteps ringing on the flagstones and said, "Happy Birthday, Katherine."  
  
"What took you so long, Kate?" Harry asked as she sat down at the Gryffindor table. She helped herself to chicken and dumplings, along with mashed potatoes, green beans and sliced almonds.  
  
"Oh, I had to listen to the 'I'm not angry, just disappointed speech. Then Snape told me what he wants me to do for my detention, and after that I had to get my dumb serum. Well, at least I got it Malfoy back on that score," Kate said, indignant.  
  
"What's he making you do?"  
  
"I get to play teacher's aid to first years for a whole month on Friday afternoons."  
  
"Could be worse, you could be cleaning out toilets without magic," Ron said rather sourly..  
  
"Big deal, done it before… Isn't so much of a punishment as denying me the fresh air and space to run of an afternoon. And it isn't as though there are that many fine days left. It'll be November already tomorrow. Snape knows I'll chafe far more under this than anything. And all under his most attentive and watchful eye. Oh, are we going into Hogsmeade this afternoon? Snape said I don't have to start till next week. Wonder why he waited, after all, today is Friday."  
  
"It's your birthday and he knows it. Doesn't want it to get around to your aunt that he kept you from enjoying it," Hermione said, "I had to go to his office the other day and he had out apicture of her when she was young. I'd say he still likes her."  
  
"Good God, I hope not. Uncle Snape! That would be too horrid. But then, I don't think I've met anyone who is good enough for my aunt. Though your friend Snuffles, if he were to… clean up a bit, could maybe pass the mark." They all laughed.  
  
In Hogsmeade, they spent most of the birthday money Kate had gotten rather than presents. All sorts of gags from Zonko's, treats galore from Honeyduke's and hot mugs of butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks. Kate wandered off for a few minutes, or rather she made it appear that she wandered off. In Gladrags Wizard Wear she bought two sets of robes with the rest of her money. One was a set of blue-gray, the colors of Conferederate officers, and the other set was a dark, rich blue, Union blue. Kate smiled with satisfaction. These were very nice, and she herself made sure the wool was very thick, and not at all itchy.  
  
The lady behind the counter smiled at her, "Are these for your papa, dearie?"  
  
Kate stopped dead in her tracks, "No, no. It's for my uncle."  
  
"Well, that's nice of you. What's your uncle's name? He is a wizard, isn't he?"  
  
"My uncle Bran is certainly that. Well, thank you. I'd best get going. It's Halloween, you know. I don't want to be late for the feast," Kate breathed a sigh of relief once she got out of the shop. That was one of the quickest fibs she'd ever had to make up. Thank goodness the shopkeeper didn't question her. She tucked the bag in with her other treats and presents.  
  
She met up with her friends outside the clothing store, "What'd you get, Kate?" Ron asked.  
  
"A surprise for someone. You aren't feeding that cat again, are you? He's going to get outright fat if you keep slipping things under the table for him." She picked up Orion and nuzzled his head. The children met Sirius at the usual spot. Crookshanks and Orion followed, orange cat with his bottlebrush tail bolt upright in the air, black cat with silky long haired tail weaving back and forth. When they got to the cave, Sirius transformed and the children got out the food they had brought for him.  
  
"We've got one more surprise for you, Sirius,"Hermione said, as she brought out an enormous cake, magically undamaged from it's long day in her bag. "It's Kate's birthday, and we thought you'd want some birthday cake." It was a beautiful cake, decorated with blue and white icing, a Celtic moon design on it. Nothing but a wizard cake could be that beautiful. It was whatever flavor the person who was eating it wanted it to be.  
  
"Happy birthday, Kate. I wasn't able to get anything. I didn't know, sorry." Sirius looked so sad, and guilty that Kate gave him a bear hug.  
  
"That's all right. I didn't even think about expecting a gift. You needn't worry, or say you're sorry. I have something for you. Well, besides the newspaper and the crossword puzzle book," she handed the parcel to him, and got up to give some cake to Buckbeak. With the firelight gilding her dark hair, bringing out the almost hidden gold, and the slow, sweet smile that made her look very pretty indeed; he thought she looked even more like Gwen than ever. Sirius felt his heart give a tug. If things had been different sixteen years before, this strange, wonderful child would be a member of his family, he was sure. With her parents dead, he'd have been almost like a father. She could almost have been Gwen's and his.  
  
After they had all had their cake and more of the butterbeer they'd gotten to go with it, the four young people made ready to go, as they did not want to miss the feast, or get into any more trouble. Of the two cats, Crookshanks was curled around Kate's lap. Orion had wandered out after he had what Kate swore was going to be his last treat of the day. Hermione went out to call for him, letting Kate and the boys clean up. Suddenly there was a loud scream, and the others rushed out of the cave. An enormous black cat sat on the rock outside the cave, ears laid back and eyes fierce as it contemplated the intruder who threatened Hermione. Kate raised a hand at the cat.  
  
"Orion, hold. Let her go, whoever you are."  
  
"Keep that monster away from me an' I won' 'urt the gel," the voice was thickly accented.  
  
"Harm a hair on her head and you'll have the curses of four other wizards on you," Harry said. Sirius had turned back into Padfoot and growled menacingly. Ron and Harry had their wands out. Both cats, one the size of a tiger, the other of a tiger cub arched their backs and spit. They all turned when Kate spoke, voice cold and controlled, " If you do not let her go, unharmed, I will set the Wild Hunt on you," she said as they all felt the air itself shiver at those words, "You know what that is, don't you?" she said even more softly.  
  
The man's eyes widened in horror, " 'E didn't say no nothing 'bout the Wil' 'Unt. All 'e said was to grab the gel."  
  
"He? Who he?" she inched forward, like a cat about to spring.  
  
"Didn't see 'is face. Only hear' a col, 'igh voice. Tol' me to snatch the gel 'hoo 'ad the black cat. 'E called the lil' man wi' 'im Wormtail."  
  
Kate looked at Harry, and Harry at Ron. Kate arched an eyebrow, looking even more wild, even less human, there was an unearthly aura about her, "Drop your weapon now, and let her go. And perhaps I will let you live. If not, here is the horn," she indicated a little silver horn at her belt, it was decorated with strange symbols, "I put it to my lips and blow. The Hunt will hear and come immediately, from either this world or the Otherworld… Need I say more?"  
  
The thug dropped the knife from badly shaking hands, and backed away from Hermione. Sirius and the two cats instantly jumped between the ruffian and the children.  
  
"Now go. And count yourself lucky that I do not even bother to report you to Dumbledore," Kate said imperiously, contemptuously, waving her hand. The fellow ran, not bothering to look back and see if he was being pursued. Kate stood high on the rock till he was out of sight, then collapsed as though her legs could no longer bear her weight. Orion, sensitive to his mistress as always, moved to cushion her tumble. The others reached her in a moment. She opened tearful eyes.  
  
"Pray that I never have to carry out that threat," she whispered into Orion's soft fur.  
  
"What was so terrible about it?" Ron asked. He and Harry were shaken, but clearly not as much so as the other three. Hermione was shaking from head to toe, Ron had his arm around her and was cradling her head. Sirius went immediately to Kate.Transforming back into a man, he sat beside her and shook her by the shoulders lightly.  
  
She straightened and looked at him, " Was I right to say what I did?" Both were trembling. He nodded.  
  
"I hope you never have to carry out that threat either. If that man had caught you instead of Hermione, you may have had to carry that out. You know who sent him, don't you?"  
  
"Voldemort. But why would he want me? Isn't he usually after Harry?"  
  
"He must have found out about you. But, Kate, never leave that horn out of your sight. If Voldemort ever catches you, you must use it."  
  
"What's the big deal about the horn and what she said?" Ron asked again.  
  
"I said that I would do something which ranks right up there with the killing curse, only about a thousand times worse," Kate said dully, "The horn is the means of the summons. Just the thought of the… I'll say the host, easier on nerves, it makes me ill. Gwen never said how horrible it is. But… I've seen. I wasn't supposed to but I have a habit of sneaking about and eavesdropping. The Hunt has only been called once to ride in my lifetime and I saw…" Her voice broke on a sob.  
  
"You wouldn't be a Rhys if you didn't have that habit," Sirius held her and waited for her to regain her composture. When she didn't, he looked up at the others and whispered, "I'll tell you later. It's a terrible thing for her. Hush now, it's all right," he ran his hand over her hair, "They can't make you call it, you know. Not even under the threat of the killing curse," he said ever so softly, "Because you not only call it, but you command it. You tell the Hunt who to turn on. Not even Voldemort could withsatnd that."  
  
The shaking of her shoulders began to lessen, and she turned her head, her eyes boring into his, "How do you know? How can you know?" She murmured.  
  
"I'll tell you sometime. Now, come on. We don't want the birthday girl missing her Halloween feast. There now. Smile, Kate. You are really very pretty when you smile, like you're got a marvelous secret you just might share if asked correctly."  
  
"I really look like that when I smile?" Kate asked.  
  
"Oh yes. And we can't have tears, can we? You aren't a proper fey child if something drives you to quick, stormy tears."  
  
Kate got up and gave him a dazzling smile of the variety she saved for when she was in trouble with teachers, "Shows how much you know about the fey. And I'm only half anyway," the smile turned to an absolutely cat-like grin, "Don't forget to open the parcel!" She skittered down the path, the others trying to catch up with her. The black cat gave a snort, and bounded after them, shrinking as he went.  
  
Sirius went back into the cave, affectionately tossed a chicken bone to Buckbeak, and sat down. He opened the parcel and smiled at what he saw.  
  
"What a child!" he said as he read the note which Kate had left with it. She wanted to make sure that he would have decent robes for the winter. Her personal taste was evident, Confederate gray and Union blue. 


	5. TC Wanderer

Nearing December, Hermione began to subscribe to the Daily Prophet. Usually found the wizard newspaper fascinating, but when Ron came up, red in the face, brandishing a copy with her face taking up about half the front page, she was frankly bewildered.  
  
"Hey Kate, look at the Daily Prophet! There's your picture!" Ron handed her the paper. Indeed it was her picture on the front page. The piece was entitlted, "Katherine Rhys: the myth and reality of the Child Silverhair."  
  
"I really wish people would stop calling me Silverhair. Makes me sound like an old woman. What does this Rita Skeeter have to say about me?"  
  
The other three groaned. Rita Skeeter was more interested in getting sensational stories as well as causing trouble than in reporting the truth. She'd been bothering Harry for the past two, almost three years, but it seemed as though she had found a new victim. Kate read the beginning aloud.  
  
"Wild dark hair framing a pale face more startling than pretty, slightly pointed ears often hidden, and stormy blue eyes sprinkled with gold best describes the second of Hogwarts' adolescent celebrities," writes Rita Skeeter, special correspondent. "Katherine Rhys, known to friends as 'Katie,' has undergone harrowing ordeals throughout her young life. The well-known facts of her heritage, not only is she the direct descendent of Morgana Le Fey and of ancient Welsh High Kings, but she was born on the very night, at the very moment ( as our inquiring journalist has learned) when little Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who, and became an orphan. Katherine was also orphaned at an early age. Her father, a Muggle, was killed in a car accident when Katie was two. Her mother, Anwen Rhys, was the victim of a dark wizard when Katie was only nine. Ever since then, Katie's aunt, Gwendolyn Rhys ( her mother's twin sister) raised the girl. This same Gwendolyn Rhys was the maid of honor at James and Lily Potter's wedding," Kate paused for breath, then exploded, " What unmitigated drivel! I can write better than that."  
  
"Keep reading," Harry said.  
  
"Katie has proved the worthiness of her maternal heritage already, despite her half- Muggle blood. Only last year, she defeated the famed Dark Wizard Lorenzo, who, by all accounts, is almost as terrible as You- Know- Who. In doing so, she earned acclaim as a powerful enchantress. But, at Hogwarts, she shall have to prove herself all over again. Put into Gryffindor House, alongside Harry Potter himself, the girl has become the object of many teenage hopes and dreams for the young men of Hogwarts. With her faerie charm, she has put many young men under her spell, and, we have reason to believe that students aren't the only ones. Rumor has it that Professor Severus Snape is just as wildly infatuated with the girl as the boys her own age." She stopped again, this time the paper sliding from her grasp. For the first time of their acquaintance, they found she had been shocked into silence. Harry picked the paper up from the floor and began to read where Kate had left off.  
  
"This dangerous charm appears to run in the family. It is a known fact that, as a student at Hogwarts, the now Professor Snape pursued the infamous Golden Gwen Rhys, the girl's aunt. Has the siren spell of the niece captured this poor man's fancy now, nearly twenty years later? But he is not the only one…" Harry trailed off, flushed hotly and handed the paper to Ron, who continued, " Harry Potter, who has been so cruely used before by Muggle-born Hermione Granger, has falled yet again into the spider's web. We are told that he is always to be seen with Katie Rhys. We can only hope that the human side of this faerie girl will take pity on him and release him from her spell. But, unlike the devious Miss Granger, the author is certain that this is just the effect of an unconscious siren rather than a scheming conniver." He finished the article and looked at the others.  
  
Harry put an arm around Kate, "Don't worry, it's just rubbish and will die down soon." He smiled and tugged at one of her braids. Kate however, refused to be comforted. She appeared to be thinking, and when she spoke, it was with a terrible conviction.  
  
"Do I really do that? What she says I do… Do I make them fall in love with me? I wouldn't know, I've always been so solitary. You're the first real human friends my age that I've had. At home, there were the ghosts and the wind, and Orion of course. You see, there just weren't any other children about. I was schooled at home… I've never even seen this Rita Skeeter. How could she say such awful things… such familiar things?" She was almost more angry over the familiarity of tone the woman used than what she said in the article. Harry and Ron just decided that they needed to protect her from those things, and Hermione brought tea to her. Kate, in one of her fits of contrariness, tossed the paper into the fireplace. She then pointed a finger at it, setting it alight.  
  
"Good riddance to badly written rubbish. The thing is worth nothing more than a bit of kindling," she said brightly. But the next day, she was to find that bit of kindling had set the school ablaze, figuratively, of course. Boys in the hall either avoided her studiously or came up to her with a familiarity she found appalling. Finally, just before potions class, she snapped when Gregory Goyle actually said something independent of Draco Malfoy. Kate turned on him with eyes blazing. The curse she laid upon him for his impertinence blasted all the hair from his eyebrows and left his face an electric lime green.  
  
"What's happened now?" Snape raised his own formidible brows at Goyle's appearance, "Who did that?"  
  
Kate raised her hand, "I did it," she said quietly, without any trace of her earlier anger.  
  
"May I ask why, Miss Rhys?" Snape asked, looking at her critically. She looked pale, and did not sparkle with the vivacity which he had come to expect from her. She did not answer him, but looked into the mirror like surface of her cauldron. Draco Malfoy enjoyed her silence and answered for her.  
  
"It's because of the Daily Prophet, Professor Snape. Rita Skeeter thinks the faerie princess here is a danger to all the male population," Malfoy said, relishing every moment of Kate's discomfort. Her pale face flushed a delicate pink. Snape thought irreverently that it could have been Gwen sitting there, immovable as stone, yet still blushing furiously at a remark made.  
  
"What has that idiot woman put in there now?" Snape said, the sneer returning to his face, " I suppose that she has decided Miss Rhys will take Mr. Potter's place as her favorite victim? Do you have a copy of that paper?" Malfoy handed the Daily Prophet over to him, and Snape looked at the piece gravely.  
  
"It isn't a very flattering photograph, is it, Katherine? They've altered it, that's plain. Has the description down though. 'More startling than pretty.' WHAT – IS – THIS ?" Snape's voice, though low, was dangerous. One could hear his fury as his sallow skin reddened and he looked about ready to burst a blood vessel.  
  
"Class is dismissed. Miss Rhys, go to Dumbledore's office. I will be there shortly."  
  
She caught up her things, in no less of a fury than Snape himself, his anger igniting and intensifying her's. The entire class shuddered when the doors slammed, making several glass bottles sway alarmingly. She stood beside the gargoyle, waiting for Snape to get there. He came, snapping out the password, and Kate followed his billowing robes silently up the spiral stairs.  
  
"Headmaster, this is the final straw," Snape muttered as Albus Dumbledore scanned over the article.  
  
"I quite agree, Professor," he said mildly, looking at the two angry faces across his desk, "What do you say about this, Miss Rhys?"  
  
"Isn't there anything we can do about this? It's nothing short of libel… or is it slander?"  
  
"Not much you can do in the realm of legalities. But I am sure you can come up with a way of getting even, or even setting the record straight."  
  
Kate stood and began to pace, like a tiger in a cage. Then her face lit up with an inner radience, along with a cunning that surprised even Dumbledore.  
  
"The pen is mightier than the sword, they say. I wonder…"  
  
"I've heard that you have quite a gift with words," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with something akin to mischief. Kate returned his smile.  
  
"A pseudonym would be necessary. To make the truth more readable than a pack of lies…"  
  
"You can't mean that you're going to write a refutation of that woman's story?" Snape asked, disbelieving.  
  
Kate gave him a saucy, lopsided grin, "Rebuttal was the word I was thinking of. This will have to be planned very carefully. An American wizard, not a witch. Wouldn't want anyone thinking that I wrote it myself. Taking the insult made to Katherine Rhys as one to nationality, he has decided to write a piece which is true. I'd have to have help with the transfiguration. A tall man, with auburn hair and green eyes, Virginia accent, I think. T.C. Wanderer. You have to have at the very least, three initials south of the Potomac." She said, more to herself than to the two men in the room.  
  
"Excellent! What does the name stand for?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the girl with amused respect.  
  
"Taran Chamberlain Wanderer. I've always liked the name Taran Wanderer, and Chamberlain is a personal hero. Joshua Chamberlain, that is."  
  
Dumbledore laughed outright, "You'll give Rita Skeeter a run for her money. And I think you just might succeed."  
  
"Then you're OK with this?"  
  
"Indeed. I think that Rita Skeeter would benefit with having her ego deflated."  
  
"I have your permission to beat that fraud at her own game?"  
  
"Yes, you do. However, this does not leave this room. We needn't bother Professor McGonagall about this, I'll teach you the transfiguration myself." Dumbledore winked. She was a fey child, but there was more. Clever in a manner unlike Gwen or Anwen, or even old Bran, who had been a veritable Puck. Dumbledore wagered that she got that streak of merry deviltry from her father."  
  
As Kate set upon her masquerade, she was filled with suppressed excitement. There was an odd rush, a feeling of exhilaration about it. She used a couple of the old robes which had belonged to her grandfather. She had gotten Gwen to send her the robes.. not telling her that they were intended for Sirius. Learning the transfiguration spell from Professor Dumbledore, she practiced in a secret room, transforming herself into a tall man, not quite handsome, but pleasing to the eyes. When she looked in the mirror, she saw waving auburn hair and bright green eyes. The voice which spoke was a tenor, with the pleasing drawl of Virginia.  
  
"T.C. Wanderer, at your service, sir. Taran Chamberlain Wanderer, of the Blue Ridge Oracle," a moment after, the figure shortened by about a foot, and became willowy and slender, green eyes changing to blue, auburn hair taking on a darker sheen, tenor lightening to soprano. The laughing face of Kate once again reflected in the mirror.  
  
"Well done. Very well done indeed," Dumbledore said, "Now, be careful, especially as there are Sneakoscopes here in the oddest places. And promise you won't do anything foolish."  
  
"Of course, Professor. I will ask my questions, and poke my very nice Romanesque nose in other people's business for only a half hour at a time. When I miss class, it will be because I was unable to take my cold iron serum that morning. I will go into Hogsmeade at certain hours, always accompanied by Orion who will also be disguised."  
  
"Be careful, Kate. You're needed for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. You're the only person who can play every position."  
  
Kate grinned and saluted, " Yes, sir. I'll be the soul of discretion."  
  
"And Kate, if you meet up with Rita Skeeter, don't lose your temper and do something to her. We want her to be discredited, not turned into a newt."  
  
Kate just smiled mysteriously and was gone. Dumbledore shook his head and didn't bother to suppress a smile. That child was what had been missing in Gryffindor for a long time. A Rhys in Gryffindor House just made sense in Dumbledore's time, from his schoolmate Bran to Gwen and now Kate. That child had more sheer impishness in her than in any student in the past with the possible exception of Sirius Black, or old Bran, who had been called Puck when he was young.  
  
The next day in Hogsmeade, Kate purposefully let herself fall behind and left. Ducking into an alley, she changed into the overly large robes. A few moments later a tall man with auburn hair stepped jauntily away and headed towards the Three Broomsticks. As the fellow went in, the girls at a table near the door stared at the man, who, despite Kate's insistance, was very handsome. He did not seem to be much older than five and twenty. When he spoke to the bartender, his pleasing Southern accent made all the women in the room flutter.  
  
"And who might you be, so far away from home, sir?" the landlady smiled.  
  
"T.C. Wanderer, ma'am. Come to Britain to write my great novel, but in the meantime, making a few Galleons as a correspondent for the Blue Ridge Oracle. Covering Quidditch games and whatnot," he leaned over and whispered to the woman, "Ever hear tell of Kate Rhys? Supposed to find out why that ole' harpy is making such nasty comments on such a good kid. That's the President of the Council speakin' there, ma'am. Heard it meself, he called her a good kid. Made Miss Gwen proud as anything. "  
  
"The child is almost as famous as Harry Potter. Why do you ask, Mr. Wanderer?"  
  
"Well, the Council is riled up, as are a lot of the American wizard population, over that pack of lies written about our girl by that Skooter woman."  
  
"You must mean Rita Skeeter. I read that article, and I must say, it does seem rather ridiculous. She is a very nice child, well brought up. But she doesn't like bullies. You'll always see her sticking up for someone who can't or is too afraid to do so themselves."  
  
The green eyes sparkled lively, "Could I qoute you on that , ma'am? I think that if people want to know the truth, then they should hear it… or read it in this case."  
  
"Oh, to be sure, Mr. Wanderer. No child should be subjected to what Rita Skeeter writes. It's perfectly scandalous."  
  
The man flashed a grin that made Madam Rosemerta's heart tremble, "Precisely what I thought, ma'am. Let's see what ole' T.C. can do to git this varmint to hang up her lyin' quill."  
  
The rebuttal article in the Daily Prophet ( copy to the Blue Ridge Oracle) filled the whole school with excitement. The small byline picture of T.C. Wanderer had all the girls in Hogwarts sighing. The boys were caught by the tales of American monsters and the wizards of the wild west. The picture of Kate, gazing out of a window in Gryffindor, smiling a sweet unexpected smile caught and tugged at heartstrings. The rhetoric in the article ranged from the amusing to the outraged, from the ridiculous to the sad. Each little segment painted a picture with words. Whoever this T.C. Wanderer was, he could wield a quill with talent and force. Even Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl, was sighing over the auburn hair, green eyes and lopsided smile. This reporter had written something for everyone in that issue of the Daily Prophet.  
  
Rita Skeeter came a few days later, seething. She searched Hogsmeade high and low for a sign of the elusive Mr. Wanderer. She finally met up with him at the end of November, unluckily on a day when the village was over run with school children. The tall man stood out amongst the shorter heads of the adolescents he was talking with. Plus, the red hair was like a beacon with the sun against it. She paused when she who the teenagers were. Harry Potter, Ron Weasely, and ( Rita shuddered) Hermione Granger. She cringed a moment, then bearded the lions.  
  
"Well well well. T.C. Wanderer. I must say, you look nothing like what I imagined. I was certain that your byline picture had been doctored. But here you are, a glorious youth. Rita Skeeter here."  
  
" 'Scuse me, folks. Well, now, Ms. Skeeter, here I was a-thinkin' you looked exactly the way I figured you'd look. Right down to them funny glasses and blonde-from-a-bottle hair," the young man grinned, winking at the teenagers.  
  
"Why you… you… Crude American."  
  
"I prefer the word straightforward, ma'am."  
  
"He's a better writer, too. I heard that the Daily Prophet which carried his article was the best selling edition in a hundred years," Hermione piped up.  
  
T.C. smiled his lopsided smile again, " Sharp little thing, ain't she? Could beat ole' T.C. here on any of them school subjects."  
  
"From the way you talk, one wonders that you could write an article like you did," Rita Skeeter said, brows raised. T.C. Wanderer looked at her long and hard.  
  
"Now I thought you were a reasonably intelligent lady. I use that last word loosely. This is a persona, if you will. Old Virginia's a far cry from the backcountry you seem to think it is. She is the mother of presidents and poets, of men who did the impossible, of men who dreamed the impossible. Now, Madam, if you will excuse me, these young people had just granted me an exclusive. Mr. Potter here is quite the storyteller himself, though a bit more modest than I would be in his place. Come on kids, I want to see this Honeydukes. My dear mother has heard all about these British sweetshops, and has been at me to send her some… Doesn't matter that she lives within a hundred miles of Hershey, PA." The laughter irritated Rita Skeeter. 


	6. The Come Hither and the Wild Hunt

The first snowfall brought the students to the windows to either sigh with the fact that holidays were coming, or with the fact that they had classes to attend, and couldn't go out and play. Kate was often caught watching the snow, especially in Defence Against Dark Arts, where a painful subject was about to be brought up in class.  
  
"There exist a category of spell that belong neither to the dark nor to the light. The two most powerful and dangerous of these lie within the sole authority of the Daoine Sidhe," Professor Lupin began his lecture. Kate flinched when he said the ancient name for the powerful Fair Folk, the fallen angels. She knew what was coming. No one else knew about these spells, not even Hermione. Oh, no. What might be known was what was heard only in the oldest of the tales. As Kate was the only one capable of performing those charms, she'd end being the one to talk about them.  
  
"Does anyone know what I am talking about?" Lupin asked. The classroom was silent. Kate looked about, desperate for a reprieve. Finding none, she sighed and raised her hand. Lupin nodded at her, face grave, " Thought you'd be the one to tell me. Go on, Kate."  
  
"The first is an enchantment which no soul, living or dead, can resist once it is heard. This was the basis for the myths of the sirens; for though the male Sidhe have the ability, the females are the ones to make it… irresistible. It is the Come Hither."  
  
"Very good, Kate. Do you think that you could favor us with a demonstration before you tell us of the second charm?" Lupin smiled encouragingly.  
  
"Do you have cotton balls or wax? I don't want anything untoward happening. Wax is better; I can sing through cotton."  
  
"Just so happens that I have. Does anyone want to volunteer?" Lupin asked. Hands shot up. Kate picked a face out of the crowd. Draco Malfoy looked smug, confident and secure.  
  
"Malfoy, leave the wax out of your ears," Kate said. She watched the entire class, including Lupin, put the wax in their ears. She looked at her prey. She extended her left hand, fingers unfurled, and pointed at Malfoy:  
  
"Come to me, come to me…  
  
Wonders you'll see  
  
The land of the shadows beckons  
  
You want to give in, to the whims of spring wind  
  
And the thrill of complete abandon…"  
  
When she had finished her song, she smiled and motioned that the siren's danger was over. The others gaped at Malfoy, who had a slack-jawed, dazed look to him; he had moved to stand directly in front of Kate.  
  
"Draco Malfoy, what would you do for me?"  
  
"Whatever you ask," he replied in a weird tone.  
  
"Would you jump off the highest tower in the school?" she sounded like a grand inquisitor, "Would you face the Dark Forest alone without a light? Would you die? Would you kill?"  
  
"Yes, my lady."  
  
"Good. I want you to flap about like a chicken, jump on the desk and sing at the top of your lungs, that you, Draco Malfoy, don't want to be a chicken, you would rather be a duck… quack quack quack quack. Then, when I tell you to, close your eyes and wait for me to release you.  
  
To the awe of the class, Malfoy did just that. He sang the song just as she told him… at the top of his lungs. A dark shadow passed by the room and Snape opened the door.  
  
"What in the blazes? Malfoy, get down from there! Lupin, just what kind of a class do you think you are teaching?"  
  
" Have a seat, Professor, and enjoy the show. You're just in time for the matinee," Kate said, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed, " I daresay my aunt never showed you this particular talent," she smiled, then her voice turned commanding, " Malfoy, go sit down and keep quiet. I shall count to the number seven and sing the counter charm. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.  
  
"I give back to you your soul,  
  
I don't want it anymore.  
  
You're free to your own will once again  
  
Yet remember ever long  
  
How the fey's siren song  
  
Held you in her thrall.  
  
Realize that even angels can fall."  
  
Malfoy blinked and looked about him. He hurried back to his seat, too unnerved to say anything. "Any other takers?" Kate asked brightly. Only Harry raised his hand and she grinned, "Wax everyone! You, too, Professor Snape," tossing some leftover wax to Snape, she then turned to Harry, " Brave man. I won't make you do anything embarrassing though."  
  
"That's a relief," he grinned back. She sang the song again, and repeated the motions for the class to remove the wax. Both Snape and Lupin looked on eagerly to see what she would command this time.  
  
"Waltz with me, Harry," was all she said. He swept her up into a graceful dance about the room, and didn't pause an instant when they were suddenly floating in midair. A silvery ribbon of light wove it's way about the room, holding them up. Kate decided to let them down after a minute or so, and released her charm. When they had retaken their seats, Lupin stood up once again, looking at her, nodding. Snape watched closely, not about to get up and leave. He had a feeling the 'matinee' wasn't over yet.  
  
"Please, Professor, do I have to?"  
  
"They must know, Kate. It's like knowing about the Unforgivable curses. They have to know if there is any possibility that they might have to face it," Lupin put a hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him, bleakly, took a deep breath, then began to speak in a quiet expressionless tone, which was quite dreadful.  
  
"The second enchantment is the most terrible thing on this earth. The Avada Kedavra pales in comparison. Even the dementor's kiss is eclipsed. That is how truly awful it is. Which is why the power to summon it is limited to two bloodlines: that of Merlin and that of Morgana Le Fey. There are no known descendents of Merlin, and the direct descent of the latter exists of only two people… Gwendolyn Rhys and myself. Of all the witches and wizards and Muggles in this world, we alone can call, can command…" there her voice broke. She swallowed and gazed at Lupin. Her eyes beseeched him to let her remain silent. But he shook his head.  
  
"Go on, Kate, it helps you as much as them to talk about it," he said sadly. Snape, still looming by the door, looked almost as alarmed as Lupin did. He knew what was coming, she thought. Somehow, he knew that this was the one thing in the world that scared her. She didn't know how he knew, but those black eyes told her that he did. And he knew that she could do this appalling thing. She nodded sliently, then closed her eyes and spoke three words in a whisper which carried effortlessly through the room.  
  
"THE WILD HUNT." The temperature in the room dropped dramatically and everyone shuddered as the words fell from her lips, relentless. Kate took another deep breath, opened her eyes, and went on, as though reciting something she had learned by rote.  
  
"The calling of the Wild Hunt, as with the singing of the Come Hither are, to us, akin to the using of the Unforgivable curses. They are only to be made use of in the direst of emergencies," she looked about at the pale faces of her friends, and continued, even more quietly, "If ever I am called upon to lead the Hunt, I grant you the single most effective protection. For your lives, for your very souls: DO NOT RUN. If you run, they will give chase, and they will run you to ground. And if they do that, may God have mercy on your souls, for they will not. I… I cannot tell you what happens, merely that it is the most horrific fate one can face. They do not understand human emotions, the Hunters, for they are the very fallen angels. Neither heaven nor hell could hold them, and they chose long ago to whom they give their allegiance. They cannot be bribed, they cannot be entreated. They are neither Dark nor Light… and you'd better thank whatever gods there be that those who can control them chose to be of the Light." Thus said, she got up and left the room, pushing past Snape in her hurry.  
  
"That is why you never make the fey angry. It is a hard thing to do, as they generally like to give as good as they get. But when they are pushed too far, that's when people get hurt," Lupin said, "Professor Snape, would you go and make sure she is all right?"  
  
Snape didn't bother to answer, merely swept out of the classroom and down the corridor after Kate. She was sitting outside the girls' restroom, her head in her hands.  
  
"You did well. You'll be all right soon."  
  
"Before or after I puke again?" she rasped, wiping her hand across her mouth.  
  
"The simple act of talking about it sickens you?"  
  
"Isn't that obvious? I doubt just talking about the host would bother me, if I hadn't seen…" she trailed off.  
  
"What did you see?"  
  
"I saw the host take a victim. I was nine, my mother had locked me in my bedroom at Cannon Hill. Being the obnoxious child I was, I climbed out my window down the rose trellis and followed them. Gwen found me before the Hunt did, but their prey almost got to me. They rounded back on him, but he killed a member of the host before they could destroy him. He killed my mother. And it was my fault…" she said, tears filling her eyes. "I haven't ever told anyone. The only person who knows is Gwen. But I killed her, as surely as the person to wield the weapon," she sobbed, clutching her knees and rocking back and forth.  
  
"So that is what you meant when you said it was your fault. At your mother's funeral, you told me it was all your fault."  
  
"What? I didn't…. I don't remember the funeral."  
  
"You wouldn't, would you? You ran away. It took nearly an hour for us to find you. The only reason we did is because I heard you singing, like a little lark. You had Leonidas in your lap and you were singing 'The Ash Grove' for the ghosts. Afterwards, Dumbledore put a memory charm on you. It was a hard day for both you and Gwen."  
  
"You were there?"  
  
" I carried you to Cannon Hill myself."  
  
Kate looked at him in shock. He had known almost everything the whole time! Snape knew more about her than she did herself, and she resented that. The tears were still running down her face and Snape took out a handkerchief and wiped her cheeks.  
  
"It isn't your fault, Katherine. No more than your friend Potter is to blame for his parent's deaths. The blame there belongs to Sirius Black."  
  
"My aunt doesn't believe that."  
  
" She was always blind where Black was concerned. Is it any wonder that she hasn't been able to bear hearing his name for nearly seventeen years?" Snape said venomously.  
  
" You're jealous. That's what I think. I've heard stories about when you were all here at school. That you were… how was it put? Infatuated with Gwen! And you were jealous that she and Sirius went out together!" Kate had to defend Sirius, after all, he had helped to save not only her friend's life, but her own.  
  
"I assure you, Katherine, that the jealousy went both ways. Black tried to kill me after I had taken Gwen to Hogsmeade. Have you never heard of the affair with Lupin? Do you not know who invented that serum you inject into your arm every two weeks?" He put his hands on her shoulders and shook her. Snape was furious, though Kate could not tell whether it was with her, Sirius Black, or with Gwen Rhys.  
  
" You needn't shout at me. I'm sure they can hear you in Hogsmeade." She had stopped crying, was now angry and thouroughly enjoying it, "As to your invention, well, it hasn't done me much good since I've been here. And if you cannot speak to me in a civil tone, I'll do to you what I threatened to Malfoy. And make no mistake, I will find the dullest, rustiest needle in Hogwarts!" She spat out.  
  
"A dull needle?" Snape couldn't decide whether he was angry at her or amused.  
  
" Well, of course. It's more painful that way. And think of the trouble it will take to give lectures. Spare us all from having to listen to you." She turned around and ran off.  
  
Snape did not feel the inclination to follow her. He realized that he had goaded her too much. She was unstable enough after having to talk about the Wild Hunt, and she had been spoiling for a fight. She didn't hold back with her threats, either. He had a feeling that if he ever did anything like that again, he'd end up having to go to the hospital wing and have his mouth unsewn.  
  
Kate was enjoying her anger. She had finally gotten to say exactly what she wanted to Snape and he had taken it. And she had gotten him to actually say something, if not nice, well, certainly not bad about Harry Potter. She knew that Professor McGonagall would probably be getting a call from Snape, telling of her bad behavior. But right now, she was too high on the fight to care. She went back to Lupin's class in an almost cheerful mood. She sat down next to Harry sighed almost happily.  
  
"You all right?" he asked.  
  
"I feel much better, thank you."  
  
"Sounded like you and Snape got into a shouting match."  
  
"Yep. It was a beautiful argument. And I am pretty certain I won."  
  
"Oh, I've got something to tell you. I don't need you to go with me to the Yule ball after all. Cho asked me to go with her yesterday. Wasn't able to tell you till now." Harry said.  
  
"Oh… well, all right. No big deal. You have fun."  
  
"You're not sore, are you? I mean, I can go with you if you want." Harry sounded concerned.  
  
"Don't you dare. You go with Cho. You wanted to go with her first anyway." Kate did not wait for him to say anything more. As the class was dismissed, she went to the next class as quickly as possible. 


	7. Revelations

By the night of the Yule Ball, Kate had decided just to stay in Gryffindor Tower. She helped all the other girls with their toilettes. After Harry had decided to go with Cho, the only person to ask her was Gregory Goyle, and she had turned him down flat. Kate had a feeling that Malfoy had told him to do it. Ron and Hermione, who were going together, Ron having asked Hermione as soon as he heard about the dance, expressed worry that Kate would be alone. She reassured them and sent them down to the feast. Once everyone was gone, Kate plopped down in a chair and read an enjoyable book. Wanderer stood watch at the window, and Orion, who decided to be a pain in the butt, sat on Kate's lap. On top of the book. He mewed at her pitifully.  
  
"Like I was going to go by myself, or worse, with Goyle, who hates me? You're a big, dumb ball of fluff, you know that?"  
  
"Why not go by yourself," it was Professor McGonagall, " I know your aunt sent you a dress and robes, Katherine. Why not put them to use, go down and enjoy yourself.. I'll help you get ready and one of the Professors will come to escort you down."  
  
One of the professors, indeed! Kate supressed a shiver at the embarassment of such an action. "I could go down alone," she said hopefully.  
  
"No, you can't do that. It isn't quite safe to do that. You've been in the hospital wing enough already this year. Besides, we've already had a volunteer."  
  
"Oh, all right," she said and put on her dress, "Hope it isn't Snape," she muttered, loud enough for only Wanderer and Orion to hear. Orion, with the typical feline sense of humor, snorted. Wanderer merely cocked his head and blinked. McGonagall took Kate's dark hair down from the customary braids and brushed the long silky waves. Then she muttered a spell, "Estellarius!"  
  
All over Kate's head, tiny lights shimmered and sparkled; miniscule stars, showing bright against her tresses. Kate finished with her other things, pulling on the robes over the dress. The dress itself was blue in one light, silver in another. It had been the one birthday present her aunt had sent. The navy trim of the gown contrasted nicely. Over this, her robes were navy, with silver star points all over it, and pearlescent white trim. Her shoes were heeled 'faerie slippers,' silvery white, sparkling with faerie dust.  
  
"You look lovely, dear. You do your aunt and Gryffindor House credit. I'll let you finish up now. You'll meet your escort at the bottom of the staircase." And Professor McGonagall was gone.  
  
Kate tucked the silver pendant under the neckline of the dress. She stood tall, proud, facing her pets as they looked on, the robes and gown pooling about her. The moonlight from the window spilled over her, her entire body set afire with silver radiance. She looked in the big mirror a moment, then went to her cupboard. She got out her staff, weighing the silver rod in her hands. She nodded her heads, and carried it with her. She pulled the pendant from it's hiding place, comparing the two. Kate had never noticed, but the two pieces matched. The blue crystal in the staff shimmered encouragingly.  
  
She opened the portrait of the Fat Lady and stepped out onto the landing. "Have fun, my dear," the Fat Lady called after her, then said to her friend Violet, " She looks like her aunt, Golden Gwen… Only she's quite a silverhair by the look of her."  
  
At the bottom of the staircase, a tall man in unrelieved black robes waited for her. The man turned and let out a rather forced breath. She stopped four stairs from the bottom, on hand pipping her pendant, the other grasping the staff with whitened knuckles. "Damn!" she thought. "Professor Snape," she said, rather frostily, "How kind of you to make certain I reach the Great Hall in safety," she began to glide past, but stopped when he took hold of her arm. His hard look was mirrored by her look of haughty anger.  
  
"You will be escorted to the Great Hall like a proper lady. And you will behave like one tonight, if I have to take you over my knee and beat manners into you. You're a Rhys, no matter that your father was a Muggle."  
  
" Raise a hand to me and you'll find out that mouths aren't the only thing I can manipulate with a dull needle. And, by the way, some people think that I'm even more powerful this way. Unlike Malfoy, that little inbred sneak-cup," she replied, eyes so darkened as to be coal black.  
  
"Your mouth will get you in trouble one of these days, Miss Rhys," Snape said, putting a finger to her lips.  
  
"I certainly hope so. I'd rather get in trouble of my own volition than by chance the way Harry does."  
  
"Harry Potter deserves to be treated like everyone else." Snape began to glower. Kate's back was up as well, she was beginning to enjoy the sparring matches with Snape.  
  
"Indeed? I've heard that you've detested him since day one."  
  
" Oh, so you're to be the new president of his fan club?" Snape said nastily.  
  
Kate smiled, " I can't possibly fit it into my schedule. It seems I have my own fan club to run. Ah, the Great Hall. ' Moonlight, stars bright, announce my presence here this night,'" she whispered as Snape opened the door for her. They entered and she took two steps ahead of him, enough for the entire assembled school to gasp at her amazing transformation from tomboy to enchantress. A bolt of light shot down on her, illuminating hre entire figure. Kate threw a smug, cat-like smile to Snape and then took flight, her feet barely touching the stones of the floor as she reached the table where her friends sat.  
  
"How was that for an entrance? I could swear I heard jaws hitting the floor," she laughed with a toss of her head as she sat down with Ron, Hermione, Harry and Cho. There was an empty seat, Kate did not have a date. "But why on earth did they have to send Snape? I just about turned back when I saw that he was there to fetch me."  
  
"Dumbledore is going to make an announcement. He asked someone to go and fetch you. He let McGonagall to help you get ready and Snape volunteered to go and get you." Ron said.  
  
"What's it about?" She asked.  
  
"Don't know, he noticed you weren't here, told someone to go and make sure you were coming." Hermione said. The room quieted suddenly. Dumbledore had risen.  
  
The old wizard began, " Before we have our feast, I would like to announce that we have made a great discovery. We have located, in a hidden room, a portrait of one of the most famous enchantresses of all time. The portrait has been restored and we wish for her most recent descendent to help me unveil it for us. Miss Rhys, would you be so kind as to come up here? Now, take this cord and I shall take the other. One, two, three, and pull! Behold, here is Morgana Le Fey." Dumbledore said jovially.  
  
Kate took a step back to look at the portrait, but her intake of breath was lost amongst the dropping of silverware and glasses… The portrait which looked back from the silver gilt frame was that of a girl of about twenty… who had Kate's face! The only difference were her eyes, they were gold where Kate's were blue.  
  
"Quite remarkable. Kate, my dear, you must touch your wand to the canvas, and she will be able to move about and talk."  
  
Kate didn't use her wand, but her staff, and suddenly, the picture looked down on her. "You're one of mine, aren't you? You've the look about you. Your eyes aren't of Le Fey though. No, I'd say your father gave you those eyes. Merlin's eyes, and you wear the pendant. He must have given it to you. The rest, why you look just like me. What a treat, it isn't every day that one knows a prophecy will be fullfilled, now is it?"  
  
"Now, my dear, go to your seat and the feast will begin," Dumbledore said and led her back to her table. Kate walked back amid hushed whispers. She sat, pale as a ghost herself.  
  
"Wicked, ain't it?"  
  
"Ron, I don't want to talk about it. It's too weird. There's one thing I don't understand, though. What did she mean by Merlin's eyes? All of my dad's family had brown eyes. And she knows something about my necklace." Kate only picked at her food after that.  
  
Hermione stood when the band began to play, "The dancing is ready to start," She said.  
  
"So," Kate replied, " Everyone must dance the first with their partner. I don't have one."  
  
"I'll dance the next with you, Kate," Harry said. Then, one by one, several other boys offered to dance with her.  
  
"I'll want to sit a couple out, I fear for my feet," she laughed. As the music started, she got up as well, walking about the edges of the dance floor. She tapped her feet to the solemn beat of of the first dance. She found herself looking at the painting.  
  
"Uncanny, is it not?" a whispered voice reached her. Snape.  
  
"It happens, I've heard. Every other generation… every ten generations, there is no great difference."  
  
"Katherine Silverhair, that's what they call you, little lark. However, you've likely not heard that often. Your aunt, I've heard, flies into a temper when she hears that name spoken… rather like when she hears the name Sirius Black. Does Golden Gwen not like competition?"  
  
"Oh be quiet, you odious man," the painting of Morgana snapped at him, "She's only a child. And few know of the prophecy. If she wasn't told, it was for a good reason. Now, go away, unless you want to dance with her. She looks to be mad after dancing, can't keep her feet still even now," Morgana said, glancing down at the long, elegant foot tapping out the beat.  
  
"My Lady Katherine?" Snape bowed, " I would be honored if you would dance with me?"  
  
"I cannot, I am engaged for this next dance," she said quickly.  
  
"This dance is not even half over. Why miss out?"  
  
"All right, I'll dance," she was too tired to argue with him, and he bowed to her and led her into the dance.  
  
She began to feel the tempo pounding through her veins, and then she was unaware of anything save the swirling colors, the swish of fine fabrics, and the dizzying intoxication of movement. She danced with a wild abandon so very unlike her normal self, even her fierce rages were not so reckless as this. It was when the Sidhe in her was closest to the surface and many people stopped to watch. Snape had a very hard time of it, keeping up with her.  
  
As they slowed to the finish, Snape whispered to her, "Katherine, Katherine. Come back to us. Come back to our world." She gazed back at him with starry eyes, utterly breathless with sheer delight. She looked like a star herself in those robes, all silvery in the moonlight.  
  
"I can see that the painting was right, you are mad after dancing. Your aunt was just that way," he said. Then Harry was coming over as the band readied to play the next piece. His green robes shone like a beacon of hope to her.  
  
"Harry!" she called out.  
  
"Professor. Kate, I think this is our dance," Harry bowed to her as a slow waltz began. Once they were far enough away from Snape, she leaned her head to his ear and whispered, "Thanks for rescuing me. I was in danger of being sneered to death. That damned painting told him to dance with me. The head of Slytherin. I couldn't think of an excuse. But oh, the dancing was wonderful!"  
  
Harry grinned and teased her, "Dancing with Snape?"  
  
"Just dancing. I can't seem to keep still when there is a bright moon and the stars are about. 'Tis such a fair night."  
  
"You're nutters, you know that?"  
  
"Yes, of course. Aren't we all? Hey, Snape's over talking to Dumbledore and McGonagall. Dance us over that way, I want to hear what they're saying." They danced closer and heard the three teachers conversing.  
  
" Albus, what was that painting talking about? What is the prophecy about the girl?" Professor McGonagall was saying.  
  
"We shall meet in my office in twenty minutes time. I'll tell you what I know then," Dumbledore replied. Harry thought he looked rather tired. They danced away from where the teachers stood, towards the middle of the floor.  
  
"We need to find out what's going on. I don't like it that people know something about me that I don't." Kate whispered.  
  
"If we go now, we can get my Invisibility Cloak and hide in the office."  
  
"What about Cho?" Kate asked him. Harry gave her a measuring look.  
  
"We'll just say that you're sick and I'm going to help you up to Gryffindor Tower. We'll ask permission of Professor Flitwick."  
  
Ten minutes later, they stood outside Dumbledore's office, quietly trying to find the right password. Finally, Kate, exasperated, started on her favorite Muggle treats, "Peanut butter fudge? Reeses Pieces, um…. Snickers, Butterfinger, Almond Joy?" she paused, thinking hard, then she said in disgust something she'd heard her aunt say often in vexation, "Tutti- Frutti Jello!" The gargoyle slid open. " It worked!" she excaimed and they hurried in, hearing voices down the hall. They hid underneath a cabinet, squeezing themselves in just as the door opened and Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape walked in.  
  
"The girl knows nothing of this and I don't want word getting around. The wrong ears could hear it. When the child was born here at Hogwarts sixteen years ago, she was taken from her mother and put in the care of a relative. This was both for the child's safety and the mother's. Kate does not know her mother is alive." Dumbledore began.  
  
Kate's soft intake of breath from underneath the Invisibility Cloak was drowned in the sharp gasps made by the teachers. If Katherine wasn't Anwen Rhys' daughter, then whose was she?  
  
"When it was fairly certain that the most dangerous of Voldemort's minions had been dealt with, the mother was allowed to go and live near Kate, who had been given to her sister. Yes, Severus, Gwendolyn Rhys is not her aunt, but her mother."  
  
Snape paled visibly, swallowed, then asked, "Who is the girl's father. It surely wasn't that Muggle that Anwen married. Who is the father?"  
  
"That I do not know. Gwen is the only person who would know for sure. The child is meant to find something of great worth and power. It was said that the Child Silverhair was to wield the two swords, Dyrnwyn Dragonstar and Caelvich Starfire. There is one more thing about the night of her birth, which even I cannot explain. I had taken the baby to my office to wait for Anwen. I left her under the care of Fawkes here for a minute or so, I had to send Hagrid to the Potters'. When I came back she was wearing the silver pendant which she is never without. From what little I could find out about it, the piece is a protection and birth-charm. I know nothing more about it, or how she could have gotten it," Dumbledore replied.  
  
Harry, listening under the Invisibility Cloak, felt Kate trembling beside him. She hadn't known! She was shaking like a leaf by the time they got back to Gryffindor Tower. She raced into the girls' dormitory and came out again a few minutes later, changed out of her dress robes and in a pair of jeans, a sweater, jacket and a pair of sturdy boots. Her arms were full of scrolls, her silver staff and her sleek Moonlight Pursuer broomstick. Orion followed, obviously unhappy at having been woken. Wanderer was at the windowsill, still on watch.  
  
"I'm outta here," she growled to the astonished group in the common group, "I can't take any more of this. I thought the Forest of Illusion would drive me insane; Hogwarts is doing a far better job," she looked ready to rip apart the person nearest to her, "I don't even know who I am anymore. Orion! On the broom. Wanderer, follow me." Harry and Ron made a move to stop her from mounting, and she turned on them, like some wild creature, " Try and stop me and I will lay a curse on you to make the ten plagues of Egypt look like a day at Disneyland," she snarled.  
  
Opening the largest window, she sat astride her broom, all her books and other things in her bag, the staff balanced crossways on her back. Orion settled himself at the end of the broom. The kestrel unfolded his wings and looked askance at Kate, he was not overly fond of night flying.  
  
"I'll let you know when I've gotten to where I'm going. Don't bother looking for me," and with that, she was gone: a silver streak in the moonlight. The three left in the common room stood aghast at her fierce words and manner. Hermione began to speak, as though reading from a book.  
  
"She can hide anywhere, wherever the moonlight or the starlight touches. Being half- Daoine Sidhe, that is how she gains that monumental power. And if her father is a wizard, that means she is not only as unpredictable as the Fey, but she's got more control over her thoughts and actions, if not her  
  
temper; she could perform the most complex spells, and not have a whit of conscience about hurting someone," Hermione said, " I wouldn't want to cross her path this night; I daresay even You-Know-Who could be reduced to ashes under that..... That maelstrom."  
  
        "We have to tell Dumbledore. He'll know what to do," Ron muttered.  
  
        "Like what?  You didn't see her, she was in complete shock. It would be like learning my mother was alive after all that has happened. She's just had her world turned upside down. I say we let her cool off, for a day or two at least. If she isn't back by Thursday, we'll tell Dumbledore. Since Christmas holidays are here, she should be back soon" Harry said. He then told them of what they heard in the teachers' conference. " I wonder why Snape went off the handle the way he did, when he learned. Seemed rather  
  
possessed."  
  
        " Well, Gwen Rhys told Kate and me that he was 'in the running.' Maybe he's Kate's dad?" Hermione said, horrified, then amended herself,  "Though, she looked really sad when Kate asked if there was someone else.... Whoever this other guy is, either him or Snape is her dad , I'm sure of it. Dumbledore  
  
himself said Gwen would not tell him. Oh, I'm glad Rita Skeeter doesn't know about this! What a field day she'd have on it!" 


	8. Christmas

Thanks to all those who have reviewed, and feel free to do so again. OK, here's the usual disclaimer. The only characters I own are Kate, Gwen and Orion. I've changed this chapter a bit, gearing up for the ones to come.. Hope it's up to scratch.  
  
M.L.  
  
  
  
  
  
  In the mountains surrounding Hogwarts, Kate made herself comfortable on the shores of a small lake, with a tiny cave framed by the waters. Despite it suiting her, both Orion and Wanderer found themselves irritated.  Kate, knowing better than most on how to survive without magic, got on just fine.  Within a couple days, there were rumors of a "Lady of the Lake." She dressed herself warmly.... It was only a few days before Christmas, she checked off her calendar religiously.  
  
        It was cold, but not as cold as a Pennsylvanian winter. She kept the little cave quite warm and cozy.  About a week after she had left Hogwarts, she convinced Orion into growing to his large size: that of a very burly panther.  
  
        "That's so you don't get eaten. Send this to Harry, Hermione and Ron. I don't want Wanderer out after dark, and he can't grow the way you can. Now, if you run into trouble, just supersize yourself," she tied a note to his collar. He loped off, clearly not happy.  
  
        Kate threw some dust in the fire, and called to see Harry Potter, " Harry!" She said, as she saw his face swim into focus. His face looked startled and he whispered, "Kate? Where are you? They've been combing the Forest and everywhere else!"  
  
        " No where that anyone may need find. I am sending a note. It is attached to the belt of Orion. He is a bit larger than usual.  He'll be to Gryffindor by nightfall."  
  
        "Kate, please, come back if only just for Christmas!"  
  
        "  I'm not going to!" She snapped and abruptly cut off the connection.  
  
        At Hogwarts, Harry puzzled over Kate's face appearing in the fire. "Should I tell someone?" He thought, "Dumbledore? No, Sirius! He knows more about the grounds near Hogwarts than anyone, he'll be able to find her."  
  
        The cat arrived a little after sundown, a great black shadow Harry first mistook for Sirius as Padfoot. He then saw the tufted ears and the great tuxedo front of the shaggy cat. From the collar there hung a note, gleaming like a star... He read the letter just as Sirius arrived in the form of the dog. The two animals regarded one another for a moment, and then Sirius changed to human form.  
  
        Sirius Black was frightened. When Harry had described Katherine's actions to him, he felt what little color there was in his cheeks drain. " The fool girl, she's worse than Gwen ever thought of being."  
  
        "Sirius, did you know that Gwen isn't Kate's aunt?" Harry said.  
  
        "Of course she's Kate's aunt, their resemblance is almost too uncanny at times," Sirius replied.  
  
        " No, she's Kate's mum. That's why Kate's in such a temper.  The only people who seemed to know were Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey."  
  
        "What?  If Gwen is Kate's mother, then...." In a flash he was off, having transformed into the great black dog. The cat, message delivered, bounded after him, when it caught up, the cat seemed to lead the dog in the right direction... It was difficult to see them, nothing more than two massive shadows, and then they were gone.  
  
        Kate shivered under her blankets. The fire must have gotten too low. She sat up as an enormous black figure rose in her sights, she gasped, and then said, " Wanderer, tell Orion that he can shrink now, he doesn't need to be so big," Then she turned, still half-lying down and actually looked at the shadow. It wasn't Orion, and she soon found herself face to face with the enormous black dog. She sat up suddenly, then looked into the strange pale eyes, and knew who it was.  
  
        Suddenly there were strong arms about her, holding her. She did something she hadn't done since she heard the terrible words Dumbledore spoke. She cried, wrenching sobs into the shoulder of Sirius Black.         "Shhh, it will be all right. That couldn't have been easy for you.  Hush now, sweetheart, and I will take you back to Hogwarts. Gwen should be there any time now."  
  
        She raised her head, " I don't want to see her. Not now. She lied to me for sixteen years, and got everyone else I know to lie along with her. Sirius, what am I going to do?"  
  
        "Kate, I know she had a good reason.  It was the time of Voldemort; she was a descendent of Morgana Le Fey, in great danger of her life. Whoever your father was, he probably sired one of the most powerful witches since Le Fey herself. Gwen was only a little older than you are now; she was frightened  
  
and alone."  
  
        "You forgive her... You were in love with her! Were you the one she wanted to take from Azkaban?" She looked up into the haunted face and saw tears in his eyes as well.  
  
        "She wanted a prisoner released from Azkaban into her custody?  I thought that after my imprisonment she would have gone to Snape. In fact, I was certain of it. He hated me so, and was quite madly in love with Gwen."  
  
        " I don't know anything about that."  
  
        " A little before your time, wasn't it? Now, come on, Kate, it's Christmas Eve and here you are in a damp cave when you could be in Gryffindor, full of sweets and lying on the hearth rug with your cat curled up beside you, and your hawk on the look-out for your presents."  
  
        "I don't want any presents."  
  
        "That I don't believe. Now you just put your head down and I'll get everything taken care of." She leaned her head on his shoulder again, as he magically put all her things in order and told the still enormous cat to take charge of them.  
  
        "You're to go through the woods. I'll take her on the broom. Go to Gryffindor Tower and wait for her," Sirius said to the cat. To the kestrel he only said, "Follow us."  
  
        " I can fly my own broom, thank you."  
  
        "You're in no condition, emotionally, to fly that broom. I want to make sure you get to Dumbledore, if I have to carry you there myself."  
  
        "No, you'll be caught!"  
  
        "It's a risk I am willing to take. Come now and get on the broom, hold onto me, not it."  
  
Quite soon they were flying over the woods and Hogwarts soon came into view. He flew the Moonlight Pursuer all the way up to the doors of the Great Hall and pushed them wide open. Then, carrying the broom and Kate, he strode up to the high table, where all the professors were gathered. Gwen Rhys was  
  
there, wearing forest green robes and a heartbroken expression.  
  
        When Sirius walked in, she was the first to stand and raise the hue and cry, "Kate!" It seemed as though her feet flew to the man in the gray robes, flew to the sixteen year old girl whose long dark hair was flying from the braid which imprisoned it.  
  
        When she reached them, she engulfed them in her robes, Kate was held close to the heart of the woman she now knew as her mother.  
  
        "Oh my Kate, my little girl. Why did you have to run away? How could you have known? I wasn't allowed to tell you, for your own safety. It was a dark time, dearest, you couldn't understand. Oh Sirius, you brought her back to me! You brought her back safe! " She was smiling as the tears rolled down  
  
her cheeks, and her golden hair shining in the candlelight.  
  
        "NO!" Shouted Professor Snape, "Gwendolyn, you get away from him. He's dangerous.  Get the child away from him!"  
  
        Kate, however, had released herself from between Sirius and Gwen,  " I want the truth, all of it. I don't want to be spared because of my age, and I don't want to be spared because of the horror. I should think that I am strong enough to handle whatever anyone can throw; but I've had enough curve balls to last me a lifetime!" She shouted, then turned. Her aunt.... No that's not right, her mother was still in the arms of Sirius Black, and looking as though she wasn't ready to break away. The smell of rich food made her stomach turn. Her eyes swam and she fell.  
  
        She smelled the hospital wing before anything else. Then the voices, all around her, speaking in low, urgent tones.  
  
        " She's been malnourished, but then, what do you expect, living on chocolate and the like for a week. You'd think the cat or the bird would have brought her something," that voice was Madam Pomfrey, the nurse.  
  
        " She didn't know what she was doing, the poor child was in shock.  No one in their right mind would go out in the middle of December to live like a hermit," that was Professor McGonagall.  
  
        " She needs rest. Vultures, every last one of us, hovering over her," Snape said. Kate was so surprised, she opened her eyes and sat bolt upright.  
  
        She looked about the number assembled there. Madam Pomfrey was trying to get her to eat something, Kate waved her away.  Snape stood to the left of her pillow, Sirius to the right. Gwen had knelt by the bed, her hand over Kate's. Professor Dumbledore stood at the foot of the bed, Professor McGonagall to his right, and, to her amazement, Harry Potter was at his left. The bird and the cat were there as well. Orion was curled up in the crook of her arm as always, and the bird perched on Harry's shoulder.  
  
        "Would anyone mind telling me what precisely is going on?" Her voice sounded oddly far away and calm to her ears, as though they were miles from her mouth.  
  
        " You fainted, Kate," Dumbledore said, "Though not without great provocation."  
  
        She played with the pendant about her neck, " I never seem to do anything without great provocation.  I want the truth, here and now. All of it. I'm tired of having to sneak around corners and listen in."  
  
        "Then let us go to my office. We'll speak there. Can you walk or shall I have someone carry you?"  
  
        " I'll walk. I've had more than enough of being carried around like a sack of potatoes," she got up and  swung her feet over the side of the bed.  Her knees, weak as jelly, refused to hold her up, " Then again, if Harry wouldn't mind giving me an arm, I wouldn't refuse that, or better yet, have Orion carry me."  
  
        The cat stretched and lightly jumped off the bed. Then he grew. The teachers jumped back. Housecats the size of Siberian tigers seem to cause that sort of reaction in people.  
  
        She was helped to Dumbldore's office where they all inisted she take the most comfortable chair.  The cat returned to his normal size and sat in the place of honor on her lap, the hawk perched on the back of the chair and Fawkes the phoenix fluttered down to sit near her. She put an absent hand to the soft feathers, while the other stroked the purring cat.  
  
        "I hear you know something about this, Fawkes," she said to the phoenix as she touched the silver pendent, "Can you tell me where I got it?" The scarlet and gold bird looked at her a long moment, then turned its head to be petted. Kate smiled sadly and did as the creature asked.  Dumbledore cleared his throat.  
  
        "Now that we are all assembled, who would like to tell the girl the story of her birth?"  
  
        " I will, I owe her that much," Gwen said, her eyes steady.  
  
        "Ok, go on... Tell me."  
  
        " I was sent to Hogwarts  from the beginning. Your grandparents were very old-fashioned, though we'd been in America for several generations. There, I was sorted into Gryffindor, along with James and Lily, Sirius, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. I had, however, made a friend in my potions class. He  
  
was very clever with that sort of thing. In those days, we did not have injections for the cold iron serum. I had to drink the stuff, and I hated it so."  
  
        "Gwen..." Snape said softly, but she raised her hand.  
  
        " This boy was so upset that something was unpleasant to me, he developed a different way of making the serum. He made it possible for me to take it by injection, which made me much more human than I would have been otherwise. This boy's name was Severus Snape.  He was in Slytherin, and so I only saw  
  
him in a couple classes a week. Meanwhile, I had been amongst the other Gryffindors, getting to know the people in my house.  One young fellow in particular appealed to my rather reckless nature. Sirius Black and I were as alike as two peas in a pod."  
  
        "Too mischievious to be Head Boy and Girl. That went to Harry's parents," Dumbldore murmured.  
  
        " Well, Sirius would get us all into trouble, and I would go to Severus to patch me up, afterwards. Severus became jealous. We never seemed to have adventures together like the type I had with Sirius and the others. But I had never felt so free in my life. I had always been taught to hide my high-spirits, my Kate. Here, I found the most wonderful opportunities to display them."  
  
        " To break the rules."  
  
        " That's the pot calling the kettle black, Sirius."  
  
        "Go on." Kate said, looking even more intense.  
  
        "Well, Voldemort had been coming to power while we grew up. When we were only a few years older than you and Harry are now, we all went to a wedding. I was the maid of honor, and Sirius was the best man.  A year later, Harry was born. But before that, your parents went into hiding, young man... as did Sirius. I'm not proud of what I did, but I thought I was going to lose him. Then a week later, Severus showed up on my doorstep, battered beyond belief. I took him in. Once he was better, he insisted I go to Hogwarts, 'to wait out the storm,' were your words, Severus. I had not been there very long when I realized I was going to have a baby. I did not know who had been the father. I just knew who it could have been, and God help me: I loved them both.  I couldn't bear to hurt the one who you didn't belong to, Kate. You were born here at Hogwarts, on Halloween, at the same time Lord Voldemort killed Harry's parents."  
  
        "And so I dared to be born. You would have been next on Voldemort's hit list, am I right?"  
  
        Snape, unable to remain quiet any longer, began to speak, " She was. Unless she had consented to marry a death-eater and become the mother of future dark wizards. Gwen, you knew it was safe afterwards, why didn't you come to me?"  
  
        " Severus, I couldn't. I was not going to do anything till I knew who Kate's father was. I still don't know," Gwen said, wiping away the tears which had fallen.  
  
        Kate's tenuous hold on her sarcasm finally broke, " Haven't you people ever heard of DNA testing? It's very accurate. Isn't there a wizard's equivilent to it?"  
  
        " Not that we know of."  
  
        " Then we can do it the old-fashioned way. I've just had my entire world shot to hell. I want something concrete, I'm sick of guessing games. "  
  
        " Kate, you know I will marry whoever your father is?"  
  
        " I don't give a tinker's damn who you marry, or even if you marry. Don't do anything you would regret later on. I don't want to have your unhappiness   to my credit. Aunt.... No, I'll just call you Gwen for now, it saves me confusion. If you marry either one of these men, don't do it for my sake, only do it for your own. Look at them, then tell yourself which one you can't be happy without. I will not interfere."  
  
        Gwen looked from one face to the other. The one was sallow, the sneer finally replaced by a desperate  line of uncertainty. The other was haggard, though steadily regaining health and handsomeness.  Black eyes versus blue. The Professor or the Prisoner. The man who had saved the life of her child or.... no, both men had done that.  
  
        " I.... I can't. I can't bear to hurt either one!" Gwen fell to the floor, weeping.  
  
        Kate slid out of the chair and held her mother, " Then you'll just end up hurting both of them, not to mention yourself."  
  
        " I've made my decision, Kate. Whichever one is your father."  
  
        " Mom! That's no answer!."  
  
        "Gwendolyn, Katherine, there is no point in the two of you arguing about this all night, which I am certain you would do if left to yourselves.  We've asked for the truth, and Gwendolyn has given what there is to be known. What else there is, it can all wait till tomorrow. I know Kate here must want some rest, and tempers will be eased and raw nerves calmed after a good night's sleep. Now, sir cat, if you would help the young lady back to the hospital wing?"  
  
        Orion grew again, grumbling this time. Kate however, stood up with no difficulty. Harry moved to her side, to make sure she didn't fall.  
  
        " You make an excellent knight in shining armor, Harry," her eyes had regained their customary sparkle. He grinned back at her, suddenly feeling rather foolish. When Kate laughed, he always wanted to laugh with her. He supposed it was her faerie blood.  
  
        She tripped away, light as a moonbeam, " I don't want to go to the hospital wing, Professor Dumbledore," she pleaded, " I want to go back to Gryffindor, after all, its Christmas. Orion here misses his cozy pillow and Wanderer wants a window to look out of." With that she was off, Orion and Wanderer in  
  
hot pursuit, Harry following at almost the same break-neck pace.  
  
        " Willful as a cat.  Said so the night she was born," Dumbledore said.  
  
        "She is willful. But she is also loyal, strong and true of heart. If she wasn't headstrong, and didn't have that temper, she wouldn't be human... She would be like me." Gwen said  
  
        For the first time since they entered the office, Sirius spoke, " Gwen, go to bed. Don't beat yourself up over what might have been," he looked as though he very much wanted to take her in his arms, but he didn't. He sat down, terribly weary, " Kate... what a child! I swear, she'll end up giving us all grey hair. Thank heavens she and the others haven't gotten into more trouble. They could rival us in our prime, Gwen."  
  
        "She's as bad as the Weasley twins put together.... though they could take some lessons from her about not getting caught," McGonagall said, her stern voice lightened for once by the memory of the irrepresible Kate.  
  
        " She's been through things we can only imagine in our nightmares, and she's not bitter, like some of us," Lupin sighed, thinking of his ongoing struggle as a werewolf, and comparing it to Kate's fey qualities.  
  
        " We've all been enchanted by her. It's harder to break because it isn't magic in the sense we all understand. Her magic is in the way her temper changes from moment to moment; in the way she finds trreasure in the oddest things.  It's the little things that you notice, and it makes her all the more amazing when she goes through what she did tonight. There is no man on this earth, I think, who would not be lucky to answer when she says 'Father'," Snape's voice was quiet and certain.  
  
        " Indeed, and she will know for herself tomorrow." Dumbledore stated.  
  
        "Professor McGonagall, I could do with a good strong cup of coffee right about now," Gwen sighed.  
  
        "Yes, indeed, I'll get you some right away Gwen, dear." The two women left the office, headed for Professor McGonagall's rooms.  
  
        "Sirius, I suggest you stay this night here. No one will send for the Ministry. No one, do you hear, Severus?" Dumbledore looked at Snape, "If I hear that someone has sent for them, I shall be very put out. Remember, there are two Sidhe here in the castle. They outstrip dementors in their ferocity when provoked."  
  
        "You needn't remind me, Professor Dumbldore. I understand you perfectly," Snape's black robes billowed behind him as he left the office.  
  
        "It was good of you to go and get her, Sirius. Hagrid has been telling me that there is something out there in the dark forest, something that isn't supposed to be there. I was worried about her."  
  
        "Are you sure you don't know who her father is, Professor?" Sirius asked, " I... I still love Gwen. That was the one happy thought the demetors couldn't take from me. I would picture her waving to me, then going and hiding amongst those boulders, that summer we all stayed at Cannon Hill."  
  
        "I wish I did, for Kate's sake. She has had a great deal of upheaval this year. Sirius, do you want to be her father for her sake, or for Gwen's?"  
  
        "I love Gwen, and I always will. But Kate, there is just something about her. Something in her eyes that I wish I had something to do with. She's a kindred spirit, I think."  
  
        "Well, I wish you luck, Sirius Black. You want to be her father for the right reasons."  
  
Once she was certain everyone was asleep, Kate snuck down to the Great Hall and whispered to the portrait of Morgana.  
  
        "Morgana, what did you mean by a prophecy being about me?"  
  
        "Dear child, you're the descendent of both myself and Merlin. Myself through your mother. Merlin through your father.You're to be a great sorceress, my dear. And you will be one of two to defeat the Dark Lord. You've great power, and Voldemort will want that. After that, you'll be the mother of the Pendragon. Through you, Arthur will be born again, though many generations in the future. You see why he couldn't have you be born? But the Dark Lord was so caught up with finding the Potters that he couldn't see to Gwen before you were born. Harry Potter foiled him in more ways than one."  
  
        "Merlin? As in sword in the stone Merlin?"  
  
        "Yes, yes. You ask far too many questions."  
  
        "Maybe you can tell me who my father is. I don't know."  
  
        Morgana shook her head, " I've told you far more than I should have. But I can tell you how to find out who your father is..." the painting trailed off. Professors Dumbledore, Lupin, McGonagall, and Snape, along with Gwen Rhys and Sirius Black, stood in several doorways to the hall.  
  
        "Stay the night in Gryffindor Tower, indeed. You just wanted to be able to sneak off when you had the first chance," Professor McGonagall said.  
  
        "Why are you out of bed, Kate?" Dumbldore asked pleasantly.  
  
        "From what the portrait said on the night of the Yule ball. I thought... she might know. Or maybe even know how to find out who my father is," Kate said, rather uncertainly, "To tell you the truth, I just had an odd feeling that Morgana might know what to do."  
  
        "Quite so, my dear girl. Did you know she's got Merlin's blood running in her veins, Professor Dumbldore? I daresay even you didn't. She wears his pendent on her breast, and I can see nearly everything about her, even the things she cannot see herself.  
  
        "What do you mean?" Kate asked, voice reflecting thinning patience.  
  
        "The pendant, girl. It's a great magical talisman, Merlin himself came forward in time to give it to you. It can show you who your father is."  
  
        "How?" Kate put both hands on either side of the picture frame.  
  
        "Put it in the hand of the first man... No, don't take it off! Never take that pendant off! There, that's right. Now, put your hand over his. Clasp it, yes, yes, with the fingers entertwined. Now hold it up.  Just like that... only you have to do it by the light of the moon."  
  
        " Oh great. Any particular phase of the moon?"  
  
        "A blue moon... Not new, not quarter, not full."  
  
        "Now you tell me," Kate finally had to give in to sarcasm.  
  
        " Now, you ungrateful baggage, don't you take that tone with me. I've been  
  
more than helpful."  
  
        " Whatever. Does anyone know what the phase of the moon is tonight?"  
  
        " It's two months till the next blue moon." Lupin said.  
  
        "You would know better than any of us.  We'll just have to wait," she replied.  
  
        The next day was Christmas, and Kate awoke to little velvet feet pawing at her nose. She batted them away, only to have them replaced by a rough tongue.  
  
        "Ok, Orion, I'm up. I'll get you something to eat in a minute," she grumbled. She was most definately not a morning person, even on Christmas. She got up out of bed, went and brushed her teeth and took Orion down to the common room. When she saw what had been done to it, she stood in shock for a full five minutes. Later on, she would swear that her jaw had dropped so hard, she had bruised it.  
  
        The common room was a wonderous sight. There were life-size nutcrackers, dressed in a variety of uniforms; castles of crystal-like spun sugar; silver windchimes moving of their own accord. On the ceiling, there hung a pearly-white moon the size of a beachball, and there were star points of every color. She picked out her favorite constellations from this.  
  
         She ran back up to the girls' dormitory and got her friend out of bed, "Hermione, come and look!" She said in an excited whisper. The other girl put a hand to her mouth in awe.  
  
        "Someone must have come in here and done this while we were asleep. Your mother, most likely."  
  
        "I don't know. Oh, there's a tree in here, even... and presents! There are a whole bunch for you too... and some for Harry and Ron... Oh, let's go get them."  
  
        The girls ran to the boys' dormitory  and got the two boys. They got back to the common room and they sat near the sparkling tree.  
  
        "This one is for you, Hermione! Oh, isn't that lovely!" Kate exclaimed as her friend unwrapped a violet scarve of the finest weave, " The color suits you too."  
  
        They all of them made away like bandits.  Bottles of butterbeer, candy galore, and enough knicknacks to satisfy even Kate were found in their stockings.  They mostly got things from parents, Hermione's sent them all new toothbrushes along with gifts. Mrs.Weasley sent them each a sweater, socks and even more edible goodies.  Kate got loads of gifts from Gwen. She had brought things from stores catering to the Civil War buff; books and even the uniform of a Union Colonel. She moved the shining infantry saber about for a few moments. Gwen had brought kepis for Ron and Harry, and an amethyst brooch for Hermione. Kate got a sapphire brooch along with her other non-magic gifts.  
  
        "How generous.  My Muggle relatives aren't nearly so nice. They sent me a Q-tip this Christmas."  
  
        "It takes all kinds. Here, we've got more to get out," Kate said, diving back beneath the tree.  
  
        "Here's one for you from Sirius, Harry," she handed him a thick square parcel.  
  
        "It has your name on it too," he said, "We'll have to open it together."  
  
        "I... I can't. It wouldn't be right."  
  
        "OK, we'll save it for last then," Harry said.  
  
        "Look at this!" Ron held out a small package addressed to Kate, " See the signature!"  
  
        "Snape."  
  
        "Open both of them. Whichever way things turn out, you can always give one of them back," Hermione said logically.  
  
        "All right," Kate said, taking the small parcel. It was a small blue book, gilt edged. A note fell out as she opened it to see pristine creamy pages. She opened it and scanned her eyes over it.  
  
        "What does it say?"  
  
        " I... I don't want to say. This is for me only."  
  
        " Shall we open the present from Sirius?"  
  
        They both pulled the ribbon away and a large, heavy tome was revealed. It was entitled Animagi; How to attain the ultimate practice in transfiguration.  
  
        "He wants us to learn how to become Animagi," Kate breathed.  
  
        "That's  bunk. We can't become Animagi, we'd have to register and moniter everything. Besides, it's supposed to be really complicated."  
  
        "So? If it could be done before, what's to say we can't do it again? And who said anything about registering?"  
  
        There was a knock at the door, and Gwen Rhys walked into the room.  She drew short of the four young people who were still sitting on the floor. She smiled and ruffled Harry's hair and kissed Kate on the cheek.  
  
        "So, have you had a merry Christmas? You've not finished with your gifts! Not a one of the special ones from me opened.  Get to it. Kate, start handing out the last of the gifts. I would have thought that you'd be done by now," she seated herself in an armchair, conjured a cup of tea, her cat Leonidas on her lap.  
  
        Hermione opened her gift from Gwen. It was a miniature of the Hogwarts castle and grounds, complete with moving figurines. Hermione clapped her hands in delight and moved each piece about. Ron's gift was a brand new set of  wizard chess pieces, both white and black. He grinned, Kate had obviously told what he liked. Harry opened a snowglobe which displayed a Quidditch match being played out. Like Hermione's castle, everything seemed to move of its' own accord. Kate had two gifts. She opened the first to find a musicbox, the figure of a young woman walking along a hill, a silver crescent moon hanging midair. Kate wound the box up and Moonlight Sonata began to play. The second package was  very long, almost as long as  the boxes for her staff and broom. Kate tore the paper off slowly, and opened the ornate oak box. Inside lay a sword, shaped like a broadsword, only delicate, as though made for a lady's hand. It was made of pure silver, but it was a dark kind of silver, Kate could tell, and had a red stone the size of a hen's egg set in the hilt. She lifted it it from it's velvet bed, and felt a warmth spread through her entire body. She was meant to have this sword, she knew.  
  
        " Entirely silver, red diamond in the hilt, flanked by rubies.  Can you guess what this is, Kate?" said Gwen in an excited whisper.  
  
        "Begins with the letter "E", doesn't it? Is it truly?"  
  
        "Perhaps... perhaps."  
  
        Kate began to duel with the air, "Lunge, feint, riposte.  It seems made for me. But you can tell it is quite old."  
  
        "That is the way of some things. You've a talent, Kate. It's not something that many wizards or witches can do, dueling with something besides wands. You'll find the sword just as powerful as your wand or staff.  
  
        "It is totally amazing. I love it," Kate stood and kissed her mother.  
  
        The others went to get dress. Kate sat by the tree for a long time. She played the music box and touched the glass ball, watching the tiny girl pace about the globe. Then she opened the note from Snape. The writing was forcible and slanting.  She read it over and turned the little blue book over in her hands.  On the cover, silver writing appeared.  Katherine Silverhair. She smiled at the nickname. There was no use in getting angry over it. Besides, the appellation was rather pretty. The note Snape put with the small book read,  
  
"My dear Katherine, I would like for you to have this token . I know these past few days must have been difficult for you. I have noticed that you always seem to have a quill in your hand, and not neccessarily for taking notes. So that you won't put anymore little writings and sketches in your Potions scrolls, I present this book for you to write in. It has been bound so that you will never run out of room, there will always be one page more. I understand that your thoughts must run too deeply to speak of, but for the fact that paper and pen are often a better media.They can keep a person sane. Never feel that you cannot come to me when you are in need of help. I made this promise to your... mother, and I make it now to you; whatever the results of  a two months  hence.  
  
        Merry Christmas  
  
        Severus Snape"  
  
        Kate read it and re-read the paper several times. She burned to get a quill and write in the lovely little book. It seemed to call to her.  But she couldn't . She couldn't write a word in it, not until she knew. It wasn't a gift to thrill her soul, like the music box, or earn her instant appreciation for the fineness of it, like the uniform, or even fill an part of her which had seemed to be missing, like the sword; it appealed to the subtleness of her nature. He knew of her masquerade as the journalist; he knew how the act of putting pen to paper soothed and strengthened her. There was nothing that could have been given that would have vexed her more to put aside and wait for. She bit her lower lip, and took up a quill and wrote a quote from Shakespeare in silver ink:  
  
        "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in  
  
faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like  
  
an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the  
  
paragon of animals! "  
  
        If she were to keep it, she would write more quotes from her favorite authors in there. If not, then hopefully Snape would forgive her for writing in it, and that he could not return it.  She put the little book aside, went to her bedside cupboard in the dormitory and got out her sketchbook and pencil. Sitting on her bed, she pictured in her head the first of the two men, quickly forming Snape's profile, and then a full face study.  It was really a very good little drawing, but she gave it little thought as she set it aside for another sheet. Next she sketched Sirius, trying to find a medium between the sunken faced man of the old newspaper prints, and the laughing young man from the dreams. She worked longer on his face, concentrating hard on each detail. She went through three sheets of paper before she felt remotely satisfied with it.  
  
        "Close enough," she muttered, then did a quick sketch of Gwen, then one of herself.  Finally, Kate took the self portrait and lay it over the sketch of Snape. She looked too much like Gwen for this to work, but she fancied she could see a resmeblence in the eyebrows.  She then tried it with the sketch of Sirius, there, the eyes and the smile were almost the same, but she just couldn't really tell.  
  
        Kate sighed and got up. She went and  brushed her teeth again and put on a sweater, jeans and boots.  She then went down to the common room to find it deserted. Splat! went something on the window! Kate jumped a foot in the air, then looked out to see Harry, Hermione and Ron making snowballs and waving at her. She waved back and opened the window.  
  
        "I'll be right down!" she called out, shutting it again in time to block another snowball. Laughing, she put  on her aviator jacket and gloves, and left the Gryffindor Tower.  
  
        Racing down a whole bunch of stairs, she almost ran into Professor Dumbledore.  She stopped short and  stood for a moment, catching her breath.  
  
        "Where to in such a hurry, Kate? Is Gryffindor Tower on fire?"  
  
        " There's a snowball fight going on outside.  My fast-pitch arm is desperately needed."  
  
        "Snowballs? Indeed. No one is ever too old for a snowball fight."  
  
        " No sir."  
  
        "Go on now, and put some roses in those cheeks.  All study and adventure and no play isn't any good for you."  
  
        Kate grinned and saluted as she ran off.  Dumbledore looked after her, chuckling. A strange combination, fey and wizard blood made. He had his suspicions about her parentage, but he might be surprised. The girl was made of so many contradictions, either Severus Snape or Sirius Black could have  
  
fathered her.  He felt a stab of pity for the man who hadn't.  
  
        Kate got outside and  found the others.  Hermione and Ron had ganged up on Harry, who was trying to get enough snowballs to hit them both. He was doing it the old-fashioned way while the others were using magic. Kate, sneaking up behind the other two, scooped  snow up in each hand and formed a perfect  
  
ball.  She threw them in quick succession, then ducked behind a hedge so that they never saw her. The two looked exceedingly thunderstruck as they tried to find out where the snowballs had come from.  Kate made two more snowballs, and crept along the hedge to the end, tossing them at Ron and Hermione again. This time she laughed as they both caught it right in the chest.  
  
        "You two should learn to play better odds," she called out, as she ran over to Harry, "Want to play teams?"  
  
        "Sure. I was getting pelted. You're real good at this."  
  
        "Thanks. Let's teach those two how to win without using magic."  
  
        "OK. How do we do that?"  
  
        "Take the high ground.... Then all we have to do it roll the snowballs down on 'em," Kate grinned and was off in a flash. She was shoveling snowballs in rapid succesion and hurling them at the others.  For an hour they held their own against the opposing force. Then their stomachs began to rumble and they tramped in for lunch. The Great Hall had only a few people in it, and there was only one table set up.  
  
        "Ah, you're just in time. Come and enjoy your meal. It's not the feast we'll be having  tonight, but it's all very good," Dumbledore said to the children.  
  
        The four sat down on  one side of the table across from the teachers.  Kate watched her mother.. "It's going to take getting used to, calling her 'Mom'," she thought. Gwen looked tired and avoided the eyes of Professor Snape and Sirius. She kept her gaze focused on her food, and only spoke when spoken to.  
  
        "Could someone pass the baked apples?" Kate asked, eyeing the glowing red apples swimming in brown sugar syrup.  
  
        Gwen looked up, and Kate saw that her eyes were swimming with tears.  
  
        "Never mind, I'm not all that hungry. May I be excused?" Kate got up suddenly after having only had a very little bit to eat. She walked quickly, not to the  Gryffindor Tower, but back outside.  The air seemed colder than it had before. She shivered in her jacket. Things were not as they should be, and it had nothing to do with her.  
  
        Kate saw the shadow before she saw it. Large and hairy, it came at her with a great club. She moved quickly though, getting out of it's way. Dancing lightly about, she toyed with the idea of screaming, then decided that it would do no good. It would only enrage the troll. Then she had an idea.  
  
        "Accio Excalibur!" She shouted, running as fast as she could to avoid the creature. Sure enough, there was soon a glimmer of silver shooting towards her. She raised her hand and felt the secure weight filling it.  
  
        "That's better," she muttered, just as the troll lunged. She slashed viciously at it, then turned to deliver another blow. The creature was howling in pain, making wild swipes at her. It landed a blow only once, her  
  
right shoulder, it stunned her for a moment. She almost dropped the sword. The troll tried to pick her up, and that's when she finally screamed. She managed to elude the troll's grasp, and, switching Excalibur into her left hand finally drove the sword home into it's chest.  
  
        People swarmed out of the Great Hall to find her battered and bleeding in the snow, the carcass of a troll nearby. Snape was the first to reach her; scooping her up into his arms, he strode to the hospital wing. Laying her down in the bed she had occupied the night before, he checked the wound to her shoulder.  
  
        "Dislocated. You're lucky to have gotten away from that mountain troll with nothing more," Snape said.  
  
        Kate looked up at him, "It wasn't a mountain troll. It was a Forest troll. He's here," then she passed out.  
  
        "He? Who he?" Snape asked Gwen.  
  
        "Lorenzo. I thought that surely he wouldn't dare, not at Hogwarts.... That's one of the reasons why I sent her here.... The troll must have had orders to take her. He wanted her for his consort. He thought if he could do that, he'd be able to control the Wild Hunt and the Come- Hither through her. She showed him otherwise."  
  
        "Oh God," Sirius said, "I don't want her alone. She needs to be protected round the clock."  
  
        "I agree. And not by that indolent cat," Snape said, glaring at Orion who had come and curled himself up at Kate's feet.  
  
        "Orion is a better guard than an armed wizard. He is devoted to her. There's also the added protection that Lorenzo doesn't know about Orion's abilities. And the falcon is also needed. But the more protection the better," Gwen brushed the hair from Kate's closed eyes, "Kate was always more my little girl than Anwen's. But I think that she and Patrick realized that. Oh, what would I do if I lost her to that monster?"  
  
        "You'd go and get her back," Sirius growled, "And I'd be right there with you."  
  
        "We'd all be there, Gwen," Snape said.  
  
        Madam Pomfrey bustled up and  put Kate's shoulder back in place. Kate woke up within the hour.  
  
        "What a way to spend Christmas," she grumbled, "Do I have to waste the whole day in bed? It wasn't a really dangerous troll, just a particularly smelly one. Made short work of it. I didn't mean to kill it, just meant to get away from it. When it almost caught me, I panicked and ran it through. Where's my sword," her fingers played fretfully on the blanket.  
  
        "We have it, Kate," it was Ron, Harry and Hermione. They each had a hold of the sword. Ron had spoken in a small voice.  
  
        "That thing must have been out there while we were playing," Hermione said, also in hushed tones.  
  
        "And I put you all in danger. I'm sorry."  
  
        "We shouldn't have let you go out alone!" Harry said angrily, "Hagrid said there was something nasty in the forest.... something that wasn't supposed to be there.  
  
        " I ran away and lived in the hills for a week, and I was fine. I was safer out there than I am in here."  
  
        "Children, will you quit arguing. Now, you three, go and take that sword out of this hospital wing. It's unhygenic," Madam Pomfrey was irate at being unable to fuss over her patient, "Now, only the child's parents can stay in here, unless Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak with her," The nurse amended herself as the headmaster entered the room.  
  
        "Indeed I do wish to speak with her. That troll didn't get here from the Forest of Illusion without help."  
  
        " He's here, I know it. I've felt something was coming. I thought.... I thought that this whole thing with Gwen and Professor Snape and Sirius was it, but I was wrong.  Lorenzo is here, I don't know how I know it, but I know it."  
  
        "He was careless, using a Forest troll. You're one of the most sensitive people I've seen when it comes to visions. Must be the fey blood."  
  
        "Harry is the only person I've told about this, and now is as good a time as any to tell everyone else. My first night here, I had some really... odd dreams. Disturbing dreams. There were several scenes. One was was of Gwen and Sirius, about my age, they were arguing. Then Professor Snape and Gwen, making the serum. The third was probably the weirdest. I was standing in the doorway of a cottage. There was a tall, monstrous being threatening a young woman. He aimed a wand at her, and there was green smoke. An explosion, and then everything cleared. The wizard was gone, and the girl lay in the blackened heap of what was left of the cottage. She was dead. But the baby wasn't. I... I tried to wake her up, but I couldn't. So I picked the baby up and sang to it. Harry heard me sing that song and somehow he remembered it. But it couldn't have happened, could it? When Hagrid came, I hid and watched him take the baby. Then the  scene changed again.  I was in Professor Dumbledore's office, and he had another baby. I think it was me. He left Fawkes in charge of her while he went out for five minutes or so. Then.... there was more, and I couldn't remember till now what it was. Someone just appeared in the room..."  
  
        "But you can't Apparate on Hogwarts grounds!" Hermione said.  
  
        "He didn't Apparate. I think he was time-traveling. The man leaned over the cradle, and put something in there. Then he turned. He had my eyes, and I could recognise parts of my face in his. I had a funny feeling I should know him. He showed me what he put in the cradle. The baby was wearing this pendent.  Then he kissed my forehead and said he was proud of me. Then the dream was over."  
  
        "Who was it, Kate?" Sirius asked. His voice sounded as though he needed some water.  
  
        "Who do you think? It was Merlin."  
  
        "Merlin? Are you certain?" Dumbledore eyes took on a strange glint.  
  
        "Quite certain. He told me that the past and the future meet in dreams, and that though I looked like Morgana, I had enough of him in me to keep things interesting. He.... He looked like me when he smiled. But there's something else. Whoever my dad is, he is the descendent of Merlin. That means he can call the Wild Hunt. No wonder Lorenzo's after me. This means that I'm doubly cursed." Kate's words left an impact on the assembled party. Each felt a small cold chill when she stood and walked away as though nothing had happened. 


	9. Animagi, the blue moon and Kate finds a ...

Here is the chapter that you've all been waiting for!!!! Kate, Harry, Hermione and Ron become animagi! Kate finds out who her father is! And underneath it all, a dark figure waits to destory everything. And for once it's not Voldemort! Usual disclaimers, Kate, Gwen, Orion, Wanderer and now the wicked Loenzo are the only characters who I own, though as everyone must know, no one really can own Orion, he tolerates me because I made him up.  
  
K.S.  
  
  
  
The idea of Lorenzo, out there lurking, waiting for an opportunity to strike drove Gwen to accept Dumbledore's idea of creating a class for the second half of the school-year, Fey Studies. It seemed like everyone loved the class, as well as the instructor. Gwen simply let everyone fall in love with her, and her class was just as well kept as either McGonagall's or Snape's, as well as being more popular.  
  
Kate was the only student required to take Fey Studies, and though she understood her mother's reasoning, she loathed the manipulation the adults displayed her. Of course she retaliated, using whatever means necessary, magical or Muggle. It was through her frustration and boredom that she incited Harry, Ron and Hermione to start working on the Animagi book.  
  
Kate pushed her friends hard, and herself even harder. By the time Christmas holidays were over, she had began the rudimentary changes necessary in becoming an animagus. She found it fascinating that one could tell what they would eventually transform into by looking at one's shadow. She was up most nights, if not working, then pacing up and down the girls' dormitory, going mad from inaction.  
  
Finally, they had managed the preliminaries, right after classes started again, mostly due from Hewmione's studies and Kate's manic, suppressed energy.  
  
Once they had found what they were best suited as, they performed the transfiguration spell.  
  
Hermione was the first to get the spell right. She turned into a great snowy owl, larger than Hedwig. When she'd turned back into herself, she looked about. They had met in an empty classroom, so that no one knew what they were up to. The invisibility cloak as well as the Mauraders' Map assured their privacy.  
  
"It's amazing! Totally different from flying on a broomstick or even riding Buckbeak." Hermione exclaimed  
  
        "I think we ought to make up nicknames, like Sirius and my dad did," Harry said.  
  
        "Hermione should be Lightwing. She just seems to float on the air," Kate murmured.  
  
        "Let me try,"Ron said, muttering the spell. Quite suddenly he was gone with a pop. Where he had stood was a bear-cub, half grown.  
  
        "I was hoping for something a little more inimidating," he said, and the other three grinned.  
  
"Don't worry, Ron, you'll grow into a very intimidating animagus." Harry said.  
  
Then it was Harry's turn. He stood very still, mouth barely moving, his eyes rather crossed. Then the other three had to jump back suddenly, for there stood a great red and gold beast, flexing wings which were reminiscent of those of a small airplane. Harry had become a pheonix.  
  
        "Wicked! Harry, that's awesome!" Ron exclaimed as Harry turned back into himself. Kate then took a deep breath and thought about what she would become.  
  
Murmuring the spell ever so quietly, she felt an indesribable feeling come over her. Her body shrank, a tail grew, and soft fur covered her. She sat on her haunches and looked at the others, who all looked fairly shocked. She stretched this odd new shape and moved to look in the mirror. A small grey cat with blue eyes blinked back. Kate was so shocked, she changed back. She stumbled and fell on her bottom as she backed away from the mirror.  
  
        "Ok, I guess this means that the sorting hat was right when he called me willful as a cat."  
  
        "Well, we have an owl, a bear, a pheonix, and a cat. Now we have to think of more nicknames."  
  
        "Madam Lightwing, Mr. Arcas.... hmmm, what else?" Kate said.  
  
        "Arcas? I like that but what does it mean," Ron grinned.  
  
       "It's the actual name of Ursa Minor. You know, the small bear." Kate replied.  
  
"Mr. Firetail, and Madam...." Harry screwed his face up, "Can't seem to think of something for you, Kate."  
  
        "Madam Shadowmist," Hermione said.  
  
        "All righty then, Messrs. Arcas and Firetail and Madams Lightwing and Shadowmist.. Animagi extrodinaire," Kate laughed.  
  
        In the next Potions class, they talked to each other using their new nicknames.  
  
        "Hand me those dandelion roots, Mr. Arcas."  
  
        "Certainly, Mr. Firetail."  
  
        "Madam Shadowmist, would you lend me the use of your measuring cup?"  
  
        "Indeed I shall, Madam Lightwing."  
  
        "What is all this rot?" Draco Malfoy ambled over to their table.  
  
        "Mr Firetail, do you think we should tell Mr. Malfoy?" Kate asked, eyes  
  
radiating mischief  
  
        "No, indeed, Madam Shadowmist, for I doubt he'd get the joke. Don't you agree, Mr Arcas?"  
  
        " Huh? Oh yeah. You too Hermione? Er... Madam Lightwing?"  
  
        "Of course I do, Mr. Arcas."  
  
        "Scram, Malfoy. Before I get the urge to repeat the bouncing ferret episode I've heard so much about," Kate said.  
  
        "I don't think you'll do that.  Cause I know the truth about you, and your mum. Yeah, that's right, Gwen Rhys is your mum. My dad says that in school, she led every man there along. Professor Snape and Sirius Black had it the worst for her."  
  
        "Shut up, Malfoy."  
  
        "So who was it Kate? Are you Snape's bastard or Black's? Your mum was a whore to both of them, I understand. Aww, are you going to cry? Oh no, not again!" he began to hiccup and belched up a bubble, and then another and another, till the room stank of lye soap.  
  
        Kate stood in the middle of the room, hands clenching and unclenching, breathing hard. Every time her hand contracted, she drew blood in her palms. Harry watched her a moment, then flung himself on Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle were frozen by Petrificus Totalus by Hermione as Harry beat the tar out of  
  
Malfoy. No one really noticed when Snape entered the room, but he had to pull Harry off Malfoy.  
  
        "Detention and fifty points from Gryffindor," he roared at them, then noticed the pale, statue-like girl who stood as though she could neither see nor hear. Her hands were dripping blood. He changed from the furious man into a concerned father-figure.  
  
        "Katherine? Katherine... please, are you all right?" He asked, gentle now, kneeling at her side. She blinked, then looked up at him, as though she only now saw him.  
  
        "Did you hear? What he called me? What he called her? I want to go home, to Cannon Hill. I want everything to be the way it was before this all happened," she was crying now, the tears flowing like a river, her hands and robes streaked with blood. Snape took a clean cloth from his desk and wiped  
  
the blood off her hands.  
  
        "I'll take you to your mother. I think you need to be with her. Hush now, Kate. Everything will be all right. Soon we'll know for sure. Then you'll have both a mother and a father who love you. You already do."  
  
        "Don't. Everything you say will be twisted and mangled by someone like Malfoy, or Rita Skeeter. Why do you think Harry was beating him up? He called Gwen a whore... and he called me a bastard."  
  
        "Shhh. I'll set everything to rights. Don't worry, Kate. Come along. Malfoy, go to the hospital wing, and I will be talking to you later. Everyone else, get started on today's work. Come on, Katherine."  
  
        He had to hold her up, she was shaking so badly.  
  
        "You called me Kate back there."  
  
        "So I did. Here we are," he knocked on the door and Gwen opened it.  
  
        "Severus, what's the matter? Oh Kate!" She pulled the girl into the room and set her down in a comfy chair.  
  
        "I can't take much more of this. When will life be normal?" Kate looked about her.  
  
        "When has life ever been normal for us, darling?  Besides, I know you, Kate-Kat. If life were normal, you'd be bored within an hour," Gwen hugged her daughter. Kate returned it.  
  
        "You're right, I would be bored," she looked past her mom to Professor Snape. He had the oddest expression on his face, "Thank you, Professor."  
  
Since the incident in Kate's potion class, Gwen had avoided both Severus Snape and Sirius Black for the better part of a month. One day in February, however, one of her pursuers caught up with her. Gwen had just sat down in the teachers' lounge with a mug of hot tea. She didn't notice the other teacher sitting in an arm chair on the other side of the room. Snape watched her with a look of great desperation. He knew Sirius Black was beginning to court her, and was determined to try and stop it.  
  
        "Your daughter continues to be a good student," he opened quietly. He thought it best to bring up a safe subject. Kate's academic ecxellence, if nothing else about the girl, could be considered safe.  
  
        Gwen turned and looked at him. She was still as lovely as ever, he thought. Her golden hair had a few strands of silver gilt in it, and her face showed that she had grown, but that inner radiance had never dimmed.  
  
        "I'm glad. She handles certain things much better than I. The fact that her attention span is of  stronger mettle doesn't hurt either," Gwen turned back to her tea and her book. Snape, however, was now determined to talk to her.  
  
        " She is so much like you. The way she talks, frank and open, but she will display those same sly little barbs of humor. The way she turns her head and stares people down. Draco Malfoy would do well to learn a lesson, and leave her be. The soap incident was enough to keep most everyone else quiet."  
  
        "Soap incident?"  
  
        "She made Draco Malfoy belch lye soap whenever he says something 'not very nice' were the words Katherine used." Gwen laughed outright at Snape's last statement.  
  
        "That sounds like something she would do. She loves to put original spins on things. My favorite things that she has said are, ' plot twists make the world go round.' and 'Variety, hell. Irony is the spice of life and whoever says otherwise is a putz.'"  
  
        "She has a way with words, to say the very least."  
  
        "The very least.  She'll make a rare and powerful sorceress, and a good woman. Which is the more unusual?"  
  
        "Gwen, please," Snape loomed over her for a moment, "Must you torment me so?"  
  
        "Torment you?" She stood and faced him, now angry, "I am tormenting you? When I am torn apart by everything that has happened! I wish to God that you hadn't created that injection. It gave me something I should never have thought to posess: a human heart. I watched my daughter, my child, taken from me because it would have been too dangerous for me to keep her. I watched, hidden, as one of the men I loved was thrown  into the deepest hell-hole on this earth. And I stood by as the other become a monster, a vile creature serving  the devil incarnate. Don't you presume to speak to me of torment, Severus Snape.  Not when I...." She sank back down into her chair, shaking uncontrollably.  
  
        "Have you taken the serum lately?"  
  
        "No."  
  
        "Good God, Gwen! You need taking care of more than your daughter. I swear, the two of you are the most stubborn, foolhardy...." He stopped his rant as  Kate knocked on the door, speaking as she came in.  
  
        "Mom, Hermione has been bugging me about asking you to lend her those books on Morgana.... Well, isn't this cozy? What was all the shouting about?"  
  
        "Your mother hasn't taken her serum."  
  
        "That's not what the shouting was about, and you know it Severus," Gwen returned coldly.  
  
        "Oh for heaven's sake. You sound like a pair of ten year olds trying to tell a badly thought up lie."  
  
        Snape looked down his hooked nose at her.  Kate was trying her best to look stern and imposing, but that wicked sense of humor was enjoying taking her mother and her teacher to task. Finally, she couldn't help it. She laughed, long and hard.  
  
        "This is too ridiculous. Really, Professor, if you think you're going to win her in this manner, you certainly need a few pointers. Watch a few Cary Grant movies.... her favorite actor, you know.  Another good hint is flowers,  or a walk in the moonlight on a spring night....Hopeless  romantic, my mother is," oh that laughter, those eyes which  both mocked and encouraged him!  
  
The child got along better with Sirius; they teased the living daylights out of one another. But there was that tension underlying everything. As the time to the blue moon neared, the tension increased tenfold, until it was two days to the blue moon. Kate was getting as jumpy as a cat.  She wasn't the only one.  Nearly everyone involved, from Professor Dumbledore to Ron and Hermione were all showing a strain in their manner. The main players in the drama all felt about ready to go insane. Snape was nastier than usual to nearly everyone, Harry in particular, till he caught Kate glaring at him, angry for her friend's sake.  
  
        "If she's mine," Snape thought, " I'll have a hard time of it with her and Potter."  
  
        Sirius would often wander about in the form of Padfoot, Wanderer sometimes with him. Orion was Kate's faithful shadow, not even leaving her side during classes. Teachers let this slide, there had been odd stories floating about Kate's feline companion and his rather remarkable tendency towards growth.  
  
        Gwen also followed Kate about, though not as closely as did the cat. She was worried about the outcome, worried that she would have to choose.  
  
        Kate herself tried to keep busy, but the approaching blue moon made it impossible. This was her delight, dancing about underneath the moon and the stars. She had a great deal of affluence during this time; drawing her strength from the blue moon, it was when she was most powerful. A force to be reckoned with.  And coupled with the import of what must happen, she felt as though she must know, or soon go mad.  
  
        And then, the day came, and afterwards, came the night. Kate watched as the last rays of the sun sank down beyond the western mountains. She trembled as she put on the warm robes over her jeans and sweater. She went down the staircases as though in a dream state. Out on the lawn, everyone awaited  
  
her, formed in a circle. It opened up to admit her, and she saw Snape and Sirius also standing in the middle.  
  
        "Ok, so how do we go about this?" she asked gravely, turning to Professor Dumbledore.  
  
        "Choose who you will first clasp hands with, Kate. The other will join in the circle, till it is his turn," Dumbledore replied just as gravely.  
  
        Kate nodded her assent and stood to face the two men. She turned to Snape, "Shall we have a go at it, Professor?"  She lifted the silver pendent, which shone even brighter than usual in the eerie moonlight. He took it in his palm and she put her hand over his, their fingers entwined. Their hands were raised to let the moon shine full on them and.... they waited. Nothing happened. Kate stared at the hands, almost willing something to happen. Snape looked just as intense, concentrating not on the clasped hands, but on her face. It seemed as though the world had frozen till Kate felt a pressure on her shoulder.  
  
        "It's been ten minutes, Kate. Sirius must have his turn," Dumbledore whispered in her ear. He had to almost lead Snape to a place in the circle. Sirius came up to her.  
  
        "Well, Kate, now we see if Morgana has got the right of it," he smiled uncertainly, yet warmly at her.  
  
        The pendent was put into place and the hands were raised toward the moon, which suddenly decided to play hide and seek behind some clouds. Kate growled in exasperation, sounding very much like a cat. She caught herself, though. It wouldn't do to transform into Shadowmist this particular evening with these particular people present. The moon came out from hiding and a beam of silvery light  blazed down onto their hands. For a moment, Kate felt as though her hand was on fire, but she didn't pull back. Then she was  
  
nearly blinded by the light issuing from between her hand and Sirius'. The others in the circle fell back, and as the light subsided, Kate thought she saw a face in the moon. It appeared to be winking at her. She finally let go of the necklace, and it fell back against her chest, and lay gleaming there, as though it had absorbed some of the blue moon's light. Both she and Sirius sort of trembled for a moment, then collapsed onto their knees. Kate felt tears falling on her head and face as Sirius bent over, holding her close. She stared at the pendent for a moment, then up at his face. After two months of good care, he was regaining health, and even the handsomeness she had seen in pictures. But there was more. He looked... truly happy.  Then he  
  
spoke.  
  
        "All those years in Azkaban were worth this moment, Kate," he whispered into her hair, "I never expected you. How could I have? But now I have you, and I'm not going to lose you. I have a daughter," he murmured. The circle broke to admit Gwen to the center. She was weeping as well.  
  
        " My darling girl. I'm sorry you had to go through all this. But we can be a family now, a real family. Oh Sirius!"  
  
        Sirius Black broke away from his daughter and held Gwen's gaze. Gwen had a tremulous smile on her face. Kate scrambled up and backed away. She was a spectator now, watching as everyone else did, as Sirius Black did something he hadn't done in over sixteen years. He kissed Gwen Rhys. A long, tender  
  
kiss, flavored with the sacrifices both had made, and strengthened  by the knowledge that they shared something: a child.  
  
        Kate managed to drag her attention from the two people who were her parents to the others. Particularly one other. Severus Snape looked like a man who had been wounded unto death and didn't know he was supposed to fall down. Kate moved to stand beside him and she slipped a long fingered, pale hand into his spidery one. He looked down at her in surprise.  
  
        "What are you doing? Don't you want to be with... with them?"  
  
        "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."  
  
        "What do you have to be sorry about, child?" Very briefly, he put a hand to her hair, then leaned to whisper to her, so that no one else could hear, " I think I would have rather been your father than Gwen's husband," and he walked away, back towards the school. Kate watched till he was gone, an odd feeling constricting her throat.  
  
        "Come here, Kate," Sirius, her dad, said, " Everything is going to be all right. We're going to be a family, like we would have been if things had been different."  
  
        Kate looked to Harry. He seemed almost as shocked as she felt.  She took a step towards him, rather than her parents, then nodded.  
  
        "Yes, a family. That means you too, Harry. It wouldn't be right without you," Kate grinned, pulling him into a fierce hug, " Besides, who knows what trouble we can get into living under the same roof? Eh, Mr. Firetail?"  
  
        Harry, surprised, returned the hug, "This means I don't have to go back to the Dursley's, Madam Shadowmist!" And they both started laughing and whirling about  madly. Finally they got so dizzy they fell to the ground, laughing like loons. It seemed as though everyone else was infected, and the lawn rang with the sounds of laughter. 


	10. Lorenzo or The Hunt Rides

Chapter ten is here!!!!! Hooray!!! Thanks to all who have reviewed, and aren't I as good as my promises… There are more surprises in store, I guarantee that… Same rigamarole about who onws what… Kate, Gwen Lorenzo and the pets (Orion, Wanderer) are mine, all others are J.K. Rowlings… lucky woman….. Read my newest stories, the Contemplations series as well as my originals starring Kate Rhys (though those have nothing to do with Harry Potter, they're interesting and tell a lot about Kate and Gwen nonetheless..) Au revoir,  
  
K.S.  
  
  
  
  
  
Kate felt light-headed. Her problems had been solved. Well, half of them, anyway. Lorenzo was still out there, waiting. She knew that another confrontation with him was inevitable. As inevitable as Harry's eventual confrontation with Voldemort. Two lords of the Dark; two children of the Light. Oh yeah, life was just a barrel of laughs. One day, it's a good imitation of Indiana Jones, the next it's Practical Magic, and, by the time you hit the weekend, you might as well audition for Days of Our Lives. Ooh, that was cynical!!!  
  
Kate was thoroughly delighted. She hadn't been cynical or even sarcastic for weeks on end. She might even survive the school-year. As winter changed into spring, she began to relax. And nothing happened. She watched as Harry once again won the Quidditch Cup, grasping the golden Snitch in his palm. She groaned and crammed for finals.  
  
One day, she and Harry were about alone, walking to Hagrid's. Hermione and Ron had finally got the lead out of their pants and announced that they were going out. Both Kate and Harry were happy for their friends and decided to be out of their way. Spring was changing into summer and it seemed that lovers were popping up all around them. Kate honestly didn't see what the fuss was about and let everybody know about it. It seemed that the only couples she had any patience with were her parents and her best friends.  
  
"I don't see what's so great about all that mushy stuff! At least you've got some sense, Harry. You're not pining over Cho Chang anymore, are you?" She commented, and Harry realized that she was right. He saw Cho as a good competitor and a friend, but nothing more. He smiled at Kate.  
  
"So, what trouble are we planning on getting into this summer?"  
  
"Well I was thinking about showing you around Gettysburg, and maybe taking a couple trips to D.C. The city, in addition to being the capital, has some of the best museums in the world, both wizard and Muggle, as well as theatre's and monuments and such. Plus I will have a driver's license by the end of June."  
  
"I like that idea, Kate. What's Gettysburg like?" He asked, not quite sure if she was right when it came to mushy stuff… She denied it, but Kate had several boys with monumental crushes on her. They had stopped by the lake, Kate was looking into the waters, and then the sky.  
  
"It's nice here, but, like Dorothy said, 'There's no place like home.' I want to go home. I want you to have the chance to fall in love with Cannon Hill. No matter where I go or what I become, Cannon Hill will always be home."  
  
"I like hearing you talk about it. The Dursley's has never felt like home; Hogwarts is the closest thing to home for me."  
  
"Cannon Hill will be your home. All we have to do is figure out how to clear my dad."  
  
"How to clear your dad, indeed." A new voice said behind them. A man in a mask lunged at Harry, catching the thin teenager  
  
"Run, Kate!" he shouted, but Kate being Kate, she refused to run.  
  
"Let go of him! Or I shall call the Wild Hunt." She said, softly, dangerously. Only when a second masked figure laughed and made a grab at her, did she notice the horn was not at her belt, it was on the bank of the lake; the second man in between it and her. She had not even bothered to gird on the black sword Dyrnwyn to her this evening.  
  
"Oh shit!" she said, running as the second dark figure caught her and the two large men ran to the Forest with their struggling prisoners. They disapparated there, into another wood. Kate shivered, recognizing it immediately.  
  
The first man in the mask threw the two young  people to the ground.  Kate and Harry looked at one another.  
  
        "Tie them up. We don't want them trying to leave before the guest of honor has arrived."  
  
        They were  tied to the same tree, so tight as to almost cut off all circulation. Harry was cold with fear. The last time this had happened, Cederic Diggory had died, and he himself had faced Voldemort. Kate looked as pale as a ghost, he thought. How could she withstand this after everthing else that had happened?  
  
        "The fools," she murmured, "Tying a Daoine Sidhe to a rowan tree. And in full view of the moon, too.  They'll rue their folly this night."  
  
        "Kate, what are you going to do?" Harry whispered back, glad that she seemed to be sane. The full moon had an odd effect on her, and he had been worried that she would freak out on him.  
  
        "My lord! We did as you asked.  And there is more. Not only did we manage to capture Potter, but we have the girl as well. Katherine Silverhair!"  
  
"Excellent," a silky voice said. The hair on the back of Harry's neck stood. This wasn't Voldemort! He didn't know the voice, but Kate went stock- still when the hooded figure spoke.  
  
"Voldemort will not be pleased, knowing we have both the children. You did remember to take any weapons they might have. I was told that dear little Katherine has obtained a sword since last we met."  
  
"They only carried wands, but the girl had a little horn at her belt, my lord." The masked man said, handing the horn to the cloaked figure.  
  
"Good, if she does not carry either Dyrnwyn or the Hunter's Horn, she is powerless."  
  
She looked straight at the figure, right into the dark recesses of the hood, and spoke, " If you think that, then you are a greater fool than I took you for, Lorenzo. Why don't you drop the hood and show everyone what this little girl did to you without a sword, without the Horn, without a wand. Or have you figured out how to get rid of that little blemish?"  
  
The figure angrily shoved the hood back, revealing a handsome face, a series of sharp scars running down one side of his it. Harry recoiled, wondering what could have caused such a disfigurment. Kate smiled smugly, and he understood in an instant.  
  
"I must remember in future to trim your claws, you little wildcat."  
  
"Try it and I will make sure the other side of your face matches my earlier handiwork." And then she was gone.  
  
"Hurry, find her! She couldn't have disapparated! Leave the boy, he can't go anywhere, we must find Katherine!" Lorenzo roared. Harry couldn't believe it. She had left without him. He hadn't thought her capable of leaving him alone with the enemy, he slumped against the tree. Just as suddenly, a small thing dropped from the branches of the tree. The grey creature rubbed against his ankles and he saw her. She hadn't disapparated, merely trasformed into Shadowmist!  
  
Looking about, all the guards had scattered, Kate turned back into her normal self. She whipped the little knife from a hidden pocket in her robes. Cutting the ropes that bound Harry, she located where the others had dropped the wands and the horn. Kate, thinking quickly, reached about her throat and threw Merlin's talisman over Harry's head.  
  
"I claim you as my own, and the Wild Hunt must now accept you as such," she said and then addressed Lorenzo, who had turned around at the sound of her voice, "Now, you cowardly bastard! You'll feel the full blast of my fury!" Kate put the Hunter's Horn to her lips and blew three clear notes. She grabbed hold of Harry as she heard the answering call.  
  
"No! You little bitch, I shall kill you!"  
  
" I am the spring wind, you have to catch me first." She shouted back, as the misty shape of a horse materialized at her side. She tossed Harry up and flung up onto Traveller's back. Bareback, she grasped his bridle and spurred the great grey horse on. A man wearing a stag mask tossed her a silver tipped spear made of rowan wood. Kate got a mad light in her eyes. Those menacing eyes in that child-like face were the last thing many of the conspirators ever saw…. Including Lorenzo.  
  
Everyone at Hogwarts was frantic at Kate and Harry's disappearance. When Dumbledore found Harry's cloak near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he feared the worse. Snape was with him as they tried desperately to find where whoever had abducted the children had taken them. Snape figured that, as the Dark Mark hadn't burned, it was Lorenzo and not Voldemort who had taken them.  
  
"Then we must Apparate to the Forest of Illusion." Dumbledore said. The two men did just that. The scene they found when they got to a small grove in the forest was horrific. It looked as though a battle had taken place there. Trolls, wizards in masks, and a dark cloaked figgure lay on the ground, the last with a long spear sticking out of his back. Snape recoiled, but pointed to a tree at the opposite end of the grove. Harry was lying there, and Kate was propped up against the trunk of the mountain ash., eyes staring, breathing shallow.  
  
Snape pulled the spear from the figure's back, and turned him over. He didn't know whether to sigh with relief or with consternation that the dead man was Lorenzo, and not Voldemort. He tossed the cowl of the cloak over the corpse's face and followed Dumbledore to where the two children rested. Kate was fully awake, fully lucid, but when she spoke to them, it was in an emotionless, calm voice.  
  
        "He's under an enchanted sleep, you won't be able to wake him for a while," she said softly, "It was after the Hunt that I did it.  I had to claim him, or he would have numbered among the victims..." her voice broke. She began to cry, which was not nearly so terrible as the calm, quiet voice and the blank expression. Snape knelt by her and, as her impetuous nature again kicked in, she flung herself into his arms and sobbed on his shoulder. Snape was dumbfounded, but put an unsteady hand to her head, letting her weep. When she spoke again, it was with her face buried in his robes, hesitant and tortured.  
  
        "All those people! I... I know they were like Deatheaters, but still..... When I was given the spear, it sang to me: It sang for blood. And I... I enjoyed it!" she whispered, horrified by her own words and emotions.  
  
        "I took delight in dispatching them! And you see my handiwork here on this ground before you." She began to cry again, her hands gripping so hard he felt certain that she would break bones. Snape gently removed her hands from his shoulders, got a small vial from out of a pocket in his robes and held it out to her.  
  
        "What is it? The serum?"she looked up, her face tearstained.  
  
        "Just a sleep aid. Something to quiet you. Your parents are worried sick. Here, now, it doesn't taste that bad."  
  
        Kate nodded silently, and took the vial, draining it in a matter of seconds. Snape picked her up, and she was almost asleep by the time Dumbledore had conjured a stretcher for Harry, who was still unconcious.  
  
        "Headmaster, is he all right?" Snape asked.  
  
        "He will be. No doubt he shall wake as soon as we get him back to Hogwarts."  
  
        Kate, who had fallen asleep, her head on Snape's chest, glanced up at him, half- awake, "Professor, your heart is just pounding. You're not afraid of me, are you? I couldn't bear it if everyone were afraid of me. Harry is, now. I'm afraid of me too."  
  
        "I was afraid for you. There is a difference, child. Go back to sleep. We'll be at Hogwarts very soon," he whispered as she settled her dark head on his shoulder once more.  
  
        "Shall we get these children from this charnel pit?" Dumbledore asked. Snape merely nodded.  
  
        After returning to Hogwarts, the children were settled in the hospital wing.  Harry woke up almost immediately, but Kate slept the rest of the day away. When she woke, it was dark out, and she was ravenously hungry. She looked about the shadowy ward, and seeing no one save Harry, who had also  
  
fallen asleep again, she got out of  bed. Her parents were not there.  
  
        "You get right back in there, young lady.  The fiasco at Christmas will not be repeated." Snape had been sitting in a corner, well concealed by his black robes.  
  
        "I'm hungry. Where is my cat?"  
  
        "Your cat is right here," Snape brought Orion to her. The creature nearly bowled her over, though he was only his normal size.  
  
        " I thought you two didn't like each other," she said suspiciously.  
  
        "I decided, and your cat agreed that it would be easier to look after you if we weren't at odds all the time."  
  
        "You've appointed yourself my guardian angel?"  
  
        "You seem to need one more than anybody, I think."  
  
        She smiled, and nodded, " I can't seem to help but attracting trouble, can I? My parents?"  
  
"They were both sick with worry. They've each taken turns sitting by you. I finally sent your mother off with threats of sleeping potion. No doubt she and your father are pacing their chambers at this moment," he said. Kate nodded, put her hand to touch the pendant, and realized with a sickened jolt that it was not about her neck.  
  
        "My necklace! Where is it? Merlin's talisman! Oh God, how could I have lost it!" She shrieked, getting up and racing for the door. Snape caught her and forced her back into bed.  
  
        "Hush, you fool girl, do you want Madam Pomfrey in here and forcing things down your throat? Your necklace is safe."  
  
        "Where... where is it?"  
  
        "You said you had to claim Potter or the Hunt would have taken him. You threw it over his neck, and it saved him from a terrible thing."  
  
        " I.... I claimed him? I couldn't have. That would mean..."  
  
        "What?"  
  
        " I have to talk to Professor Dumbledore."  
  
"You cannot go in this state!"  
  
"Then bring him here! He has to know. He'll be able to fix it, he has to be able to fix it." She muttered, getting up out of the bed, and like Snape's opinion on her parents, pacing the length of the room. She looked like a young tiger in a cage. Snape went to Madam Pomfrey's office and used the fire to ask for Dumbledore.  
  
"So she's awake, is she? Well, she'll figure it out soon enough." Dumbledore sighed, and decided to come through using the Floo system.  
  
"What is it that you mean, Headmaster?"  
  
"Well in claiming him, she has effectively tied herself to him. There is an unbreakable bond between them."  
  
"A bond? Like brother and sister? Or more?" Snape's voice was strained.  
  
"That is what the children must find out for themselves." Dumbledore replied softly. The two men left Pomfrey's office and looked at the girl who was still pacing visciously. She stopped when she saw Dumbledore.  
  
"Am I right? Was the bind completed? Or did the Hunt abort it?"  
  
"I am afraid the Hunt did not abort the binding. The two of you are connected."  
  
"How? Are we connected like brother and sister… or otherwise?" She asked him, pleading to know. That was Kate's ultimate quest, her ultimate passion – to know.  
  
"I can't tell you, for I don't know. Why don't you get back into bed, my dear. I'll call your parents and we'll have a nice long talk."  
  
Kate nodded, and lay down on her cot. She had a feeling Dumbledore had decided that this 'nice, long talk' was going to wait till tomorrow. She slept, but nightmares plagued her. One dark lord was defeated, but the other lay in wait, and visions of a flat face, red eyes and skeletal hands reaching out for her… No!!!! she awoke screaming to have her mother's voice soothing. Her mother's hands stroked her hair and rocked her till she was quiet. A potion was given to her, the same type that Snape had given her at the site of the battle. 


	11. Epilogue

This is the last installment of The Wild Hunt. The continuing story of Kate Rhys at Hogwarts, Stubborn as a Stonewall, will be coming very shortly. If the format on this is all askew, well that is ff.net's fault, not mine.  
  
K.S.  
  
  
  
  
  
She awoke to her mother's arms about her, crooning a much-loved song. She just leaned in and closed her eyes. "Well dear heart. It's time we go home. Your dad will be coming with us for the beginning part, but he will be running on missions for Dumbledore soon." "And Harry? What of Harry, Mama?"  
  
"He will have to go to the Dursley's at first, sweetie. But he will come home to us soon enough. We've gotten you almost all packed." "That's right. It's almost July. Well, I suppose we can manage a couple months without getting into trouble, can't we?" The Hogwarts Express boarded that next day. Kate was there to see off her three friends. Hugging Harry, she said, "Don't worry, you'll be at Cannon Hill in a fortnight. Mom and Daddy will be thrilled to have you with us. We can be a family then." He didn't say anything in reply, merely smiled and got onto the train. He left almost all of his things to go to Cannon Hill, seeing as he would be staying there for most of the summer holidays. Kate even had Hedwig in a cage alongside that of Wanderer and Orion's basket. Gwen and Kate traveled directly from Hogsmeade to Gettysburg. Sirius joined them the next day. That fortnight was, in a word, idyllic. Kate listened to all the wonderful stories of 'old times' at her father's knee in the sultry Pennsylvania evenings. Gwen and Kate prepared all the spare rooms for their guests. Kate had never been happier. Her only regret was that Harry was cooped up at the Dursleys'. Then came the awful news. Both Gwen and Sirius were needed for a mission at Dumbledore's behest. Kate's fury was only exceeded by that of Sirius when he learned who would be chaperoning his teenage daughter and godson. Snape. It was two weeks into the vacation, and Gwen had to contend with two temper ridden individuals. "Perhaps you may take it as a consolation that Severus will not be likely to be awfully fond of this arrangement either?" Gwen said acidly. Two pairs of blue eyes regarded her with outrage. "Oh I give up! Sirius, this gives us the summer. alone together." Gwen changed her attack plan. If she could at least get her lover to be a little more amenable to the scheme, then their daughter could not do much to argue. "Alone? Sorry, Tabby Kat, but your mum has a very valid point. Old Snape isn't likely to do anything to hurt you kids. And if he tries anything, you have my full permission to turn him into a newt and drop kick him 'cross the battlefield." "Gee thanks." Kate stalked upstairs. She wrote to Harry, Ron and Hermione, informing them of the change in plans. As Harry's owl was with her, she tied the three letters to Hedwig's leg and informed the snowy owl to deliver to Harry last of all, as he was bound to need some cheering up. 


End file.
